First Gen completes new LNG cargo delivery

MANILA, Philippines —  Lopez-led First Gen Corp. has received its fifth shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Singapore-based Shell Eastern Trading Pte. Ltd.

On the sidelines of the fourth Philippine Natural Gas Investment Summit yesterday, First Gen chief revenue officer Vincent Villegas said the 154,500-cubic-meter LNG cargo, which could be its final order this year, was delivered last month.

It was loaded into the storage tanks of the BW Batangas floating storage and regasification unit, a specialized vessel used to import, store and regasify LNG.

The supply, Villegas said, would be utilized by the company’s four gas-fired power plants located at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex.

“What we do is we provide or complement the supply of Malampaya,” Villegas added.

First Gen’s power plants with a combined capacity of over 2,000 megawatts have been supplied with Malampaya gas for several years.

Operated by Razon-led Prime Energy Resources Development and its partners, the Malampaya deep-water gas-to-power project is the country’s first and only indigenous gas resource offshore Palawan.

First Gen completed its first LNG cargo delivery in Subic in August 2023 and made subsequent deliveries at its Batangas complex in December 2023 as well as in February and May 2024.

Currently, the company is securing its LNG requirements via spot purchases.

However, First Gen chairman and CEO Federico Lopez earlier said the Philippines would get the “best benefit of LNG” through long-term contracting.

“You get better terms, and the country will get better terms and prices if you do it that way. I think that’s really where we really need to head,” he said.