First Gen to start delivering gas by July 2023

With its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal “substantially complete,” First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group is eyeing to deliver gas from the facility by July next year.

First Gen executive vice president and chief commercial officer Jonathan Russell said the LNG terminal should be completed by end-March or earlier as they are not anticipating any further delays.

“What then needs to be completed is the implementation of all the control systems,” said Russell. “And from then, we will then start to commission it and that will be in time for the arrival of the FSRU (floating storage regasification unit) when we will complete the commissioning.”

Russell said the LNG terminal’s delivery will take place until after July as they first need to commission the FSRU or vessel, which would provide LNG storage and regasification services to First Gen’s existing and planned gas-fired power plants and other third-party terminal users.

The FSRU, recently renamed as “BW Batangas,” is a storage ship that has an onboard regasification plant capable of returning LNG back into a gaseous state.

First Gen and BW LNG, a unit of Bermuda-based maritime company BW Group, are building the vessel slated for completion before the import facility will go online.

This forms part of the interim offshore LNG receiving terminal project in Batangas City that First Gen is developing through its subsidiary FGEN LNG Corp.

First Gen said this project would meet the natural gas requirements of its existing and future gas-fired power plants of third parties and affiliates, also accelerate the ability to introduce LNG to the Philippines.

When asked if the LNG terminal will supply power to First Gen’s natural gas plants, Russell said it would depend on how the Malampaya gas platform “continues to perform.”

First Gen operates four gas facilities in Batangas, all powered by the Malampaya deep water gas-to-power project in offshore Palawan.