Fuel Shortage Looms In Metro Manila As Gas Pipeline Shut Down
Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines (AHN) – Metro Manila residents could face a fuel shortage following the order on Thursday by the Makati City government to close the pipeline that delivers 50 to 60 percent of fuel used in the national capital region.
Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. ordered the temporary closure of the pipeline owned by the First Philippine Industrial Corporation because a substance with high concentration of petrochemicals leaked from an exploratory well dug by a task force investigating the source of a leak that had caused the closure of the nearby West Towers condominium.
The well is five meters (5.5 yards) from the FPIC pipeline, which the task forces suspects as the source of the oil leak in West Towers.
The task force previously investigated if the leak came from the tower itself or a nearby buried fuel tank of a shuttered gasoline station, but the investigators have ruled out the two as the source of the leak.
FPIC officials said that even if they have not yet received a copy of Binay’s order to close the pipeline, the company had shuttered it. The FPIC, which claims to have conducted its own investigation, blamed the leaks on holes on the pipeline caused by the task force’s digging, not leaks from the system itself.
FPIC insisted there is no need to shut down the pipeline for long because the company could fix any leak within hours.
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