No more delays in construction of Batangas LNG terminal

MANILA, Philippines — First Gen Corp. does not expect further delays in the completion of its interim offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in Batangas by the first quarter of next year.

First Gen executive vice president and chief commercial officer Jonathan Russell said the project is slated for completion by March next year.

He said the construction part is currently “substantially complete.”

“What then needs to be completed is the implementation of all the control systems, which is not big in volume. That will start to happen sort of the end of this year into the first quarter of next year,” Russell said.

The project was earlier eyed for completion and operations by the fourth quarter, but has been pushed back to next year.

The project will accelerate the ability to introduce LNG to the Philippines to serve the natural gas requirements of existing and future gas-fired power plants of third parties and FGEN LNG affiliates.

It will likewise play a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the Luzon grid and the Philippines, particularly as the indigenous Malampaya natural gas resource continues to decline.

“These projects are very complicated because the technology is complicated. Obviously, we have the experts from BW that are assisting us as well. But it takes a lot of people to make this work, it is really quite complicated. But as I said, although it’s complicated, it has been done many times before in other locations so there is a lot of people with very specific knowledge to make this happen. We’ve been very fortunate to work with really good people,” Russell said.

Meanwhile, Russell said tenders for the suppliers of the LNG have yet to be completed as the company is still trying to get the best possible deal that it can for the Philippines.

“So we will keep the tender going until we’re happy with the offer that we get from suppliers,” he said.

“The first delivery of LNG won’t happen until after July, because that’s when we would have brought the FSRU in and commissioned it. So we still got more time. We’re not trying to slow things down, but we want to get the best deal for everybody. So sometimes it takes a little while to make sure that you get everybody on the same page,” Russell said.

First Gen wholly owned subsidiary FGEN LNG Corp. and BW LNG in April last year executed a five-year time charter party for the charter of the “BW Paris,” the floating storage regasification unit  that will be used for interim offshore LNG receiving terminal.

FGEN LNG and BW LNG are planning to rename BW Paris to “BW Batangas.”

The intended name change to BW Batangas will be carried out before its deployment to the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City by the end of the second quarter or early third quarter 2023.