For Guillaume Lucci, the engineer-turned-chief executive of Filipino infrastructure firm Prime Infra, the answer to the Philippines' ongoing energy emergency is straightforward.

"What we need is more energy of all sorts, not only more renewable energy," Lucci told Fortune in an interview at the company's headquarters in Pasay City, Manila. "We don't see energy reliability and affordability as being decoupled from decarbonization, but for now, we need a bit of everything."

The Philippines was among the countries hardest hit when the U.S.-Iran war erupted in February, closing the Strait of Hormuz and cutting off oil shipments from the Gulf. The archipelagic Southeast Asian nation, which relies on the Gulf for 98% of its oil imports, declared a nationwide energy emergency on March 24. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the emergency measures would remain in effect for one year.

At one point during the Iran crisis, the country had just 45 days of buffer fuel supply. The vulnerability was especially acute given that the Philippines already contends with some of the highest electricity rates in Southeast Asia—a structural burden on households and industries alike. Lucci argues that in such a fragile position, reliability, affordability, and decarbonization cannot be addressed sequentially—they must be pursued simultaneously. His pragmatic, all-of-the-above strategy stands in contrast to the more ideologically driven energy transition policies favored in some Western capitals.

Prime Infra's portfolio in the Philippines—spanning the Malampaya gas field, the Wawa hydropower dam, and an emerging waste-to-energy business—serves as a practical test of whether a diversified asset mix can provide resource security for a fragile emerging economy. The Malampaya field, located off the coast of Palawan, supplies natural gas to power plants that have historically generated roughly a fifth of Luzon's electricity; maintaining and extending that supply is central to the company's strategy.

The Long Timeline of Infrastructure

Lucci emphasized that green infrastructure requires considerable time to develop, making interim solutions essential. The Wawa dam, for instance, was built between 2021 and 2025 and only began operating in late 2025.

"We've evolved and transitioned dramatically over the past 50 years, it's just that infrastructure is so complex," Lucci said. "These projects take a long time to be built, mature and show returns. It's a slow-moving process, but one that's continuously in motion."

Beyond energy, Prime Infra's focus on water and waste management reflects some of the Philippines' most pressing national challenges. According to the international non-profit Water.org, 59 million Filipinos—51% of the population—lack access to safe drinking water, while 37% do not have access to clean sanitation facilities.

A Young Firm Addressing Enduring Challenges

Lucci founded Prime Infra in 2017 with the financial backing of Filipino billionaire Enrique Razon Jr. The pair established the company with the goal of not merely financing or constructing infrastructure, but maintaining a long-term operational stake to ensure assets function effectively. Lucci initially served as president and COO before assuming the CEO role in 2022.

"The DNA of the company is to develop, invest and operate assets for a long time," said Lucci, who trained as an engineer. "It's not about coming in, building assets, then going away. We intend to partner with and be embedded in local communities for decades to come."

Lucci's commitment to infrastructure was shaped during his childhood, much of it spent in Morocco and Spain during the 1970s and 1980s. "I spent most of my childhood in environments that are structurally deficient, so that shaped a lot of my views on how to address basic needs with infrastructure," he recalled.

He pursued engineering studies in France, Brazil, and the United States before relocating to the Philippines in 2014 to join Razon's port management company, International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI). Both ICTSI and Prime Infra appear on Fortune's Southeast Asia 500 list, ranked at No. 113 and No. 246, respectively.

"ICTSI is a Filipino company that has a global footprint in emerging markets, and I really wanted to work in markets with significant barriers to entry," Lucci explained. "ICTSI builds infrastructure in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Papua New Guinea, Iraq, Honduras and Mexico."

Unlike its sister company, Prime Infra concentrates most of its assets within the Philippines. "We are growing, urbanizing, industrializing, digitizing and electrifying, so all of that combined makes for a very exciting environment to build infrastructure," Lucci said.

He acknowledged, however, that the Philippines presents significant building challenges, citing heavy bureaucratic processes, the social complexities of developing on indigenous land, and the country's acute vulnerability to natural disasters. The Philippines consistently ranks among the most climate-vulnerable nations in the world, regularly battered by an average of roughly 20 typhoons per year.

"When you build with climate resilience in mind, you find yourself in a situation where you're designing for extremes rather than averages—and that actually makes infrastructure more expensive," Lucci explained.

The Wawa hydropower dam in Luzon illustrates this reality. Construction began in 2021, and operations commenced in late 2025. The project cost 26.5 billion Philippine pesos (approximately $500 million). Now operational, it supplies clean water to Metro Manila residents and functions as a gravity-powered battery for pumped-storage hydropower. According to Lucci, the dam also served as a protective barrier during Typhoon Uwan last November, capturing more than 99% of rainfall and safeguarding numerous downstream communities.

Waste Management and Sustainable Fuels

In 2022, Lucci and his team entered the waste management sector by establishing Prime Integrated Waste Solutions, a wholly-owned Prime Infra subsidiary that builds and operates modern waste recovery facilities.

"In the Philippines, there was a very limited regulatory environment in support of waste management to industrialize it at scale," he said. "It's a challenging space because it's so fragmented."

Currently, Prime Infra sorts, processes, and sells waste to industrial customers. Lucci's broader vision involves a waste-to-energy pipeline that would convert refuse into power and heat through combustion systems, boilers, and steam turbines. "We wanted to position ourselves to access the waste stream, because the feedstock is fundamental to sustainable fuels and can be tapped for energy production," he explained.

In 2023, BP invested $10 million in WasteFuel Global, a sustainable fuels company backed by Prime Infra. Prime Infra also owns WasteFuel Philippines, which is slated to develop local biorefinery facilities converting municipal and agricultural waste into biomethanol.

Nevertheless, Lucci conceded that the waste-to-energy pipeline he envisioned has not yet materialized. "The material recovery and municipal waste treatment facilities already exist, but infrastructure for the second part, where waste is turned into energy, has yet to be built," he said. "We are ready to execute, but need a contract to finance it."

He also acknowledged that the global sustainable fuels sector faces significant headwinds, including severe supply shortages, elevated production costs, and fluctuating government support. Still, Lucci remained undeterred: "It's like everything else… If it were easy, everybody would be doing it."

International Expansion

After nearly a decade building expertise in the Philippines, Lucci said Prime Infra is now pursuing opportunities internationally. In March, the company made its first overseas acquisition, purchasing SierraCol Energy, Colombia's largest privately held oil and gas producer, from Washington-based private equity firm Carlyle. The transaction value was not disclosed, though Reuters reported that Carlyle was seeking $1.5 billion for SierraCol.

"We will be ten years old next February," Lucci said. "If you take into account the gestation periods of our projects, the first six to seven years were really about winning at home, and making sure that we were operating at a standard which allows us to compete internationally… Once we reached that turning point, we started looking outwards."

Lucci declined to identify specific target markets but expressed particular interest in Africa. "I grew up in Morocco at a time where everything had to be built, and now it's a dominant force in renewable energy and has a lot of natural resources, metros and roadways," he said. "I would say Africa has plenty of opportunities."

Looking ahead, Lucci emphasized that even as Prime Infra expands, the company will maintain its foundational mission of building infrastructure to meet societal needs. "We're striving for a good balance of strategic acquisitions and greenfield projects," he concluded. "After all, the latter has been the defining trait of the business from the very beginning."