3 firms vie for supply of floating gas storage facility

First Gen Corp. is bringing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project further forward with a call for tender among three qualified and prospective suppliers for the charter of floa­ting storage regasification unit (FSRU) or vessel.

The company’s subsidiary, FGEN LNG Corp., issued a binding invitation to bid to BW Gas Ltd., GasLog LNG Services Ltd. and Hoegh LNG Asia Pte Ltd.—all three of which passed a nonbinding prequalification process.

FGEN LNG is developing a temporary offshore LNG terminal at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.

An FSRU is an LNG carrier that can store LNG and has an onboard regasification plant that restores the natural gas from a liquefied state into a gaseous state. The fuel is then supplied directly to a gas network.

The three companies that were invited to bid “are all very experienced players in the international LNG industry and we are delighted that they have expressed such keen interest in providing a suitable FSRU for the benefit of the project and the Philippines,” First Gen chief commercial officer Jonathan Russell said in a statement.

“We expect that it will be a difficult choice but the (tender) process is designed to enable FGEN LNG to select the FSRU supplier and FSRU best suited to meet the needs of the project in order to deliver a safe, reliable and competitive supply of LNG to our customers,” Russell said.

Last September, the Lopez-led group received from the Department of Energy a permit for the floating LNG terminal. First Gen expects the facility to start commercial operations as early as the third quarter of 2022.

FGEN LNG has chosen Australia-based McConnell Dowell Philippines as preferred bidder for the contract to build the terminal.