Construction of Batangas LNG hub to start next year — Cusi

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub in Batangas is expected to start construction in 2018, taking advantage of the growing gas demand in Asia and secure gas requirements ahead of the Malampaya field depletion, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.

The Asian region has the highest demand for gas, with the Southeast Asian region transitioning from net exporters to net importers due to the depletion of gas fields in the area, Cusi said during the opening of the 35th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) yesterday.

He cited a study by Oxford Institute for Energy, which anticipates that by 2021, ASEAN countries will be net importers requiring 20 million tons and is set to rise to at least 45 million tons in 2030.

“Given these new developments, ASEAN needs to start planning for this future. We need to think of how we can ride this LNG wave, to ensure that we can safeguard our energy security,” Cusi said.

The Philippines has started to join in the fray with the rollout of the Batangas LNG Terminal. Cusi said it is targeted to be online “by 2020 to safeguard against the anticipated depletion of the Malampaya gas facility in 2024.”

Spearheaded by the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), the corporate arm of the Department of Energy (DOE), the project has already generated huge interest to co-develop the massive undertaking.

“The buy-in is there. The investors are in. And we expect to commence groundbreaking of this project in 2018,” Cusi said.

In a briefing with reporters, the energy chief said a public consultation would be undertaken on the regulatory framework to accelerate the development of the country’s LNG sector.

“Starting Oct. 10, we will have the public consultation. We will have two more and then after Oct. 20, we will start publication to comply with the administrative requirement,” he said.

PNOC was tasked to put up an integrated LNG hub with storage, liquefaction, regassification and distribution facility, as well as a reserve initial power plant capacity of 200 MW.

It was supposed to be done through government-to-government (G2G) partnership but has not materialized.

PNOC is now looking to build the LNG hub by piecemeal, starting with a floating storage and regassification unit with power plant (FSRU-PP) completed by 2020.

The FSRU-PP project, which will have an initial capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) and scalable to 800 MW, is expected to address the country’s emergency power needs in times of natural calamities.