First Gen postpones delivery of LNG cargo

LOPEZ-LED First Gen Corp. has postponed the delivery of its fifth liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargo as it still has enough supply, its president said.

“Right now, we’re going through the operation and then there is the Malampaya. We still have the residual gas so we have to deplete residual gas,” First Gen President and Chief Operating Officer Francis Giles B. Puno told reporters on Friday last week.

In June, First Gen awarded Japanese company TG Global Trading Co. a contract to supply one LNG cargo of approximately 125,000 cubic meters with delivery scheduled this month.

”We have to defer to a time that [we are] ready,” Mr. Puno said.

The LNG will be used by First Gen’s four existing gas-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 2,017 megawatts (mw) that have been supplied for many years with gas from the Malampaya field, the country’s sole natural gas provider.

FGEN LNG Corp., a subsidiary of First Gen, constructed an interim offshore LNG terminal and executed a five-year time charter party for BW Batangas to provide LNG storage and regasification services.

In April, First Gen awarded a contract to Chinese company CNOOC Gas and Power Trading & Marketing Ltd. from its fourth tender process for one LNG cargo of approximately 130,000 cubic meters.

GEOTHERMAL
On Friday, First Gen’s renewable energy arm Energy Development Corp. officially unveiled its 28.9-MW Palayan Binary Geothermal Power Plant in Albay, as part of the expansion of its existing 140 MW Bacon-Manito (BacMan) facility.

The P7-billion project was synchronized with the Luzon grid in January and is one of the four geothermal projects targeted to be operational this year.

The other projects are the 28-MW Mahanagdong Binary in Leyte, 20-MW Tanawon Binary in BacMan, and the 5.6-MW Bago Binary in Neg-ros Occidental. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera