First Gen earmarks $170M for temporary floating gas facility

First Gen Corp. has earmarked capital expenditure of $60 million this year and $110 million for 2021 for a temporary floating gas facility in Batangas, which the Lopez-led firm is developing with Tokyo Gas Corp.

During yesterday’s annual stockholders meeting, company president and chief operating officer Francis Giles Puno said the planned liquefied natural gas terminal complex was the main driver of First Gen’s capex for this year and next.

Expected to cost less than $300 million, the interim FSRU is intended to advance the development of the terminal project, which would eventually have a permanent onshore regasification plant.

An FSRU (floating storage regasification unit) is a storage ship that has an onboard regasification plant capable of bringing liquefied gas back into a gaseous state.

Earlier this month, First Gen said it had shortlisted three contractors for the interim offshore terminal, namely BW Gas Ltd., GasLog LNG Services Ltd. and Hoegh LNG Asia Pte Ltd.

Puno said these three “have expressed a keen interest in the [interim] project, have represented that they will have suitable FSRUs available, and have expressed a willingness to participate in a competitive tender.”

He said First Gen was looking at September for the conduct of the bidding, although this depended on when the Department of Energy (DOE) would issue a permit to construct, expand, rehabilitate and modify (PCERM).

“Notice to proceed to the contractor would not be issued until all conditions are satisfied, which would be after the issuance of the PCERM by the DOE,” Puno said.

“The COVID-19 situation will most likely impact the global supply chain which could lead to some delays in the manufacturing of equipment, but we are looking to start construction by this quarter,” he added.

First Gen chair Federico Lopez said the pandemic was “challeng[ing] our ability to execute,” given various levels of quarantine restrictions across project sites.

“We have a plan in place to recover and to ramp up activities quickly once delivery of materials and mobilization of manpower can resume.”