MANILA, Philippines - Lopez-led First Gen Corp. is looking into other types of liquefied natural gas (LNG) solutions to meet the country’s fuel requirements and displace diesel plants in off-grid areas, its top official said.
The company is keen on building an LNG facility not only to meet its gas-fired power plants’ requirements but also future demand, First Gen president and COO Francis Giles Puno said during last week’s Energy Policy and Development Program (EPDP) Lecture series.
“There’s never been an intention for us to say this facility will solely be built for First Gen’s use. It doesn’t make sense for us,” he said.
First Gen has a planned LNG terminal within its clean energy complex in Batangas, with a capacity to supply a minimum five million tons of natural gas, equivalent to 5,000 megawatts (MW).
Its clean energy complex in Batangas houses the 1,000-MW Sta. Rita, 500-MW San Lorenzo, 414-MW San Gabriel and 97-MW Avion gas plants.
“You don’t want to build it so that it’s just enough for existing demand. There’s a bit of additional growth. Our original intention is to build roughly five million tons, but with an option to increase it to seven million tons in the medium to long term,” Puno said.
He said the additional capacity is meant to partially meet the additional growth in the country’s mid-merit requirements, estimated at 3,000 MW over a period of five years.
Earlier, the company said it is keen on pursuing a joint development with government on its LNG terminal as it now plans to accept offers from the private sector after the search of a government-to-government (G2G) partner was unsuccessful.
But aside from the LNG terminal, First Gen is also looking at bespoke LNG solutions to deliver fuel to nearby industrial facilities by land and to possibly displace expensive diesel-fired power plants in missionary areas, Puno said.
“One of the things we’re studying very carefully is, the realization that 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. So that’s also part of the game plan. That’s also incorporated in the technical feasibility,” he said.
“We’re also looking at trucking facilities, lorrying facilities. I was in Japan, I saw these for myself, I witnessed the loading of an LNG truck to the unloading to an industrial complex,” he added.
If First Gen builds a terminal in Batangas, Puno said it opens up a lot of opportunities for the LNG sector with the use of trucking facilities.
“When you look at Batangas, within a 100 km radius, those are all truck accessible. We don’t even need a pipeline for the moment, We can deliver gas to our own industrial parks in industrial park in Sto. Tomas, Batangas, We can deliver LNG to Cavite. We could deliver to Metro Manila,” he said.
“All of these technologies are there already. We should try to do something here, a leapfrogging event that will make us at par with the best in the world,” Puno added.