Additional LNG cargo arriving in PH

Lopez family-led First Gen Corp. is set to receive its second liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo delivery by late December after completing another international tender meant to boost the country’s dwindling gas supply.

In a stock exchange disclosure on Friday, First Gen said it had awarded the cargo contract to Singapore-based commodities supplier Trafigura Pte Ltd., which needs to deliver 154,500 cubic meters of supply to FGen Singapore Pte. Ltd. by Dec. 25.

The LNG cargo will subsequently be delivered and unloaded into the storage tanks of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) berthed at First Gen’s clean energy complex in Batangas province.

An FSRU is a floating vessel that can transport, store and re-gasify LNG.

Supply coming from Trafigura will be utilized by First Gen’s four gas-fired power plants in Batangas—San Lorenzo, San Gabriel, Santa Rita and Avion—that have a combined capacity of 2,017 megawatts.

These facilities provide a fifth of the country’s power requirements and have been relying on dwindling supply from the Malampaya gas field in offshore northwest Palawan province for the longest time.

First Gen received its first LNG cargo in September through global firm Shell Eastern Trading Pte. Ltd., which also supplied 154,500 cubic meters of gas.

The company first announced in May that it would set aside $90 million this year to fully operate its LNG terminal, and later disclosed that they would issue a spot tender for LNG cargo.

“First Gen believes that the LNG terminal will play a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the Luzon grid and the Philippines,” it said in a statement.

The Department of Energy has repeatedly stressed that LNG served as a crucial transition fuel in the country’s effort to gradually exit fossil fuels and shift to renewables.

Various groups and independent organizations have warned, however, that LNG remained a fossil fuel and can be as potent as coal in harming the environment in the long-term.