FGen taps BW Gas as FSRU provider

MANILA, Philippines — Lopez-led First Gen Corp. has tapped BW Gas Ltd. as its floating storage and regassification unit (FSRU) provider for its interim offshore LNG terminal in Batangas.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday, First Gen said its wholly owned unit FGEN LNG Corp. signed a five-year time charter party with BW FSRU IV Pte. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of BW Gas Ltd., for the charter of an FSRU with respect to the LNG terminal that  will be built at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.

Selecting the FSRU provider will help FGEN LNG realize its goal of introducing LNG to the Philippines as early as third quarter of 2022 to serve the natural gas requirements of existing and future gas-fired power plants of third parties and FGEN LNG affiliates.

“FGEN LNG believes the project will play a critical role in ensuring the energy security of the Luzon grid and the Philippines, particularly as the indigenous Malampaya gas resource is expected to be less reliable in producing and providing sufficient fuel supply for the country’s existing gas-fired power plants, and even less so for additional gas-fired power plants,” First Gen said.

“The entry of LNG will encourage new power plant developments, as well as industrial and transport industries, to consider it as a replacement to more costly and polluting fuels,” it said.

BW Paris, the FSRU to be provided by BW FSRU IV, has an LNG storage capacity of 162,400 cubic meters and a nominal and peak gas send out capacity of 500 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) and 750 mmscfd, respectively.

“To put this in context, the nominal send out capacity of the BW Paris is 25 percent more than the production capability of Malampaya, which at its peak produced a maximum gas volume of approximately 400 mmscfd, and which is now declining,” First Gen said.

In addition to providing storage and regasification services, the BW Paris is capable of providing ancillary services such as reloading of LNG into trucks and small scale LNG vessels, which can then distribute LNG to nearby industrial areas as well as the rest of the Philippine archipelago.

Last Novembe, Fgen awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to McConnell Dowell.

First Gen’s LNG project, in partnership with Tokyo Gas, was originally an onshore facility targeted for completion in 2024. It was eyed to have a capacity to process five million metric tons per year (mpta) of LNG and require investment of around $1 billion.

However, it revised plans to add an FSRU to be able to bring in LNG at the soonest possible time.