Philippine National Oil Co. Is For Sale

[pioneer]

Philippines-based San Miguel Energy Corp. may be a bidder in the sale of state-owned Philippine National Oil Co.

The oil and gas development subsidiary of the state-owned PNOC, PNOC-Exploration Corp., will be sold in a bid.

San Miguel Energy Corp., the investment branch of San Miguel Corp., is reportedly looking to participate in the sale since they have publicly discussed further investment in the energy sector, the Philippine Star reported.

"They are looking into PNOC-EC once its privatization plan is finalized," an industry analyst said. "Everything is still preliminary at this point."

The government has lined up PNOC-EC as one of the companies that would be sold early next year to help raise additional revenues for 2008.

The Department of Finance has planned to generate about $145 million from the privatization of PNOC-EC's shares.

"Our estimates show that we can raise about $145 million from that sale process," said Finance Secretary Margarito Teves.

source: http://www.upi.com