DOE receives 4th application for LNG facility in Philippines

THE Department of Energy (DOE) has received a fourth application to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility in the country.

US floating LNG player Excelerate Energy has filed an application for a permit to proceed with its plan to construct a proposed floating LNG terminal.

DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella and Oil Industry Management Bureau (OIMB) Director Rino Abad said Excelerate filed its application early this month.

The pioneer and market leader in innovative floating LNG solutions is planning to construct the facility in Batangas. No other details were

provided by the officials, saying they have yet to evaluate the documents presented.

The DOE is expected to evaluate the application within 20 days.

Aside from Excelerate, the DOE received similar applications from Lopez-led First Gen Corp., Tanglawan Philippines LNG Inc. and Energy World Corp. (EWC).

All applications, except for EWC, remain pending with the DOE.

EWC was granted near the end of December a permit by the DOE to build the LNG import facility at Pagbilao Grande Island.

The permit provides EWC an additional 24-month construction period that will enable the completion date for the first tank of the LNG facility to be aligned with the commercial operation date of the associated 650-megawatt (MW) power plant.

It will also provide time to align the NGPC switchyard expansion under construction and for the construction of the second LNG tank.

The 650 MW has been recognized as the anchor off-taker of the LNG project which consists of two 130,000-cbm LNG tanks, a dedicated jetty and marine infrastructure, as well as regasification and other ancillary facilities.

First Gen’s application was also filed last month. It will construct an LNG terminal in Batangas City with its partner Tokyo Gas Co. Ltd.

Tokyo Gas will take a 20-percent participating interest in the FGEN LNG project and provide support in development work to achieve a final investment decision (FID) after which, the parties will enter into a definitive agreement to proceed with the construction of the FGEN Batangas LNG terminal project.

First Gen operates four gas-fired power plants, namely the 1,000-MW Santa Rita Power Plant, the 500-MW San Lorenzo Power Plant, the 414MW San Gabriel Power Plant and the 97-MW Avion Power Plant.

Tanglawan’s application, Fuentebella said, is “in its last stage of approval before it can secure a notice to proceed to build an LNG terminal.”

Tanglawan is a partnership between Phoenix Petroleum and China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Tanglawan is eyeing to build an LNG onshore terminal in Batangas with a capacity of 5 million metric tons per annum. It will also build a 350x3 MW power plant.