AG&P puts up unit in Houston

Home-grown construction firm Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific Co. (AG&P) has launched an affiliate in the United States, which touts a global engineering powerhouse that would develop solutions designed to drive forward the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry.

AG&P, based in Alabang, was established in 1900 and lists among its key projects the Philippines’ “first steel bridge, Manila’s water and sewage systems, a major convention center, skyscrapers and national monuments,” and iconic projects like the Araneta Coliseum.

The company put up AG&P Engineering Inc. in Houston, Texas, which will harness the group’s assets through subsidiary Gas Entec of South Korea and its construction and engineering group in the Philippines to “develop innovative LNG infrastructure assets.”

These infrastructure assets are meant to serve the needs of power, bunkering, mining, transportation and industrial users in emerging economies that are currently off-grid and not served by existing LNG networks.

In particular, AG&P Engineering will focus on LNG import terminals and their supply chains with the aim of delivering LNG or gas to last-mile customers “at a lower, pragmatic capital cost.”

According to the Department of Energy, the Duterte administration is pushing for the Philippines to become a regional LNG hub in anticipation of the depletion of the Malampaya gas deposit in Palawan.

Earlier, Energy Undersecretary Jesus Cristino P. Posadas said the Philippines was an emerging LNG market in Asia considering that supply from the Malampaya gas field in Palawan is projected to last until 2024.

Posadas said the DOE was working closely with legislators to facilitate the enactment of a law declaring energy projects as projects of national significance and for the Philippine Department of Energy to develop a program for LNG infrastructure.