FGen makes headway in offshore LNG hub

MANILA, Philippines — Lopez-led First Gen Corp. is making headway in its offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal project in Batangas, with construction slated to commence in March this year.

During the Philippine Energy Transition Forum yesterday, First Gen executive vice president and chief commercial officer Jon Russell said the project has already moved past the planning stage and is now moving ahead to construction phase.

“We’re constructing our interim offshore LNG terminal by modifying the existing liquid fuel facilities that we built so many years ago to decouple the development from Malampaya at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas and that will accommodate an FSRU or floating storage and regasification unit that we will lease to receive, store and regasify LNG,” Russell said.

“We recently issued notice to proceed to our EPC contractor McConnell Dowell and the engineering is underway with construction expected to start by March of this year,” he said.

First Gen’s wholly owned subsidiary FGEN LNG Corp. awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for its interim offshore terminal (IOT) to McConnell Dowell in November last year.

Under the contracts, McConnell Dowell will undertake the EPC of both the multiple purpose jetty and onshore gas receiving facility.

The selected EPC contractor constructed First Gen’s existing liquid fuel jetty in 1998, which will be permanently modified with the new multiple purpose jetty.

At the same time, FGEN LNG is in the process of selecting the FSRU provider.

After completing the initial evaluation, FGEN LNG has selected three preferred bidders to continue to the next stage of its binding tender process, namely BW Gas Limited, Dynagas Ltd., and Hoegh LNG Asia Pte Ltd.

Once completed, the project will allow FGEN LNG to accelerate its ability to introduce LNG to the Philippines as early as third quarter of 2022, to serve the natural gas requirements of existing and future gas-fired power plants of third parties and its affiliates.

“We are therefore pioneering the development of liquefied natural gas terminal that will introduce reliable, flexible and cost competitive LNG to the Philippines,” Russell said.

“LNG will enable our own and existing gas power plants to continue to operate and eventually they would replace the declining indigenous gas reserves,” he said.

First Gen’s LNG project, in partnership with Tokyo Gas, was originally an onshore facility targeted for completion in 2024. It was eyed to have a capacity to process five million metric tons per year (mpta) of LNG and require investment of around $1 billion.