First Gen Corp. is “carefully studying” the use of liquefied natural gas for power generation and remains keen on building an LNG terminal in Batangas province, an executive said over the weekend.
First Gen president Francis Giles Puno said during a forum the company was planning to put up an LNG terminal with a capacity of 5 million to 7 million metric tons a year.
Puno said the terminal would serve various industries. “There’s never been an intention for us to say this facility will solely be built for FGen’s use,” he said.
First Gen owns four natural gas plants, including the 1,000-megawatt Sta. Rita, 500-MW San Lorenzo, 414-MW San Gabriel and 97-MW Avion natural gas plants in Batangas province.
The plants are fueled by natural gas from Malampaya gas field in northwest Palawan that is expected to be depleted by 2024 to 2027.
“So what we’re doing is building a facility for a minimum of 5 million tons per annum. That’s because we already have about 4,500 MW plus. You can imagine, when you built this capacity already, suddenly, more investors will say, I can build more gas power plants,” Puno said.
“Our original intention is building roughly 5 million tons with an option to increase it to 7 million tons in the medium to long term,” he said.
Puno said the company was also “studying very carefully” the deployment of LNG around the country.
“We have 7,100 islands. Ideally, we should be able to unload LNG and offload to island grids. Right now, they’re running on diesel anyway. That’s also part of the game plan. That’s also incorporated in the technical feasibility,” he said.
“We’re more motivated to make sure that the project pushes through and we have a good consortium that will support it. And we think that there are a number of players that will support it because it’s an important infrastructure for the country,” Puno said earlier.
