House panel eyes Russia as PH partner in energy building

Committee chairman Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, who was part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s entourage to Russia, said the issue of energy was one of the topics discussed in the bilateral talks between Russia and the Philippines. (File Photo: Lord Allan Jay Velasco/Facebook)

MANILA — The House Committee on Energy is eyeing Russia as a partner in building new sources of energy to boost our country’s energy requirements, its chairman said on Tuesday.

Committee chairman Rep. Lord Allan Velasco, who was part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s entourage to Russia, said the issue of energy was one of the topics discussed in the bilateral talks between Russia and the Philippines.

Velasco said the two countries could be good partners in building more sources of energy in the field of natural gas and thermal energy production.

He noted that 68 percent of Russia’s energy production comes from thermal energy, 16 percent from hydropower and 16 percent from nuclear.

Russia is also known as having the largest natural gas reserves in the world, the second-largest coal reserves, and the eighth largest oil reserves.

“We are rich in geothermal energy and our seas, we have lots of them, could also be harnessed for thermal energy production,” Velasco said.

The energy panel chair said the country is now geared toward cleaner sources of energy and that natural gas and geothermal energy could fuel the country’s electricity requirements.

He said there are five natural gas plants in the Philippines which, in 2017, provided 22 percent of the country’s total power demand.

The lawmaker also cited the need to develop and find more natural energy sources as the Malampaya gas fields are expected to hold only until the mid-2020s.