Manila-headquartered Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company (AG&P) is the fourth company that was issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) with a notice to proceed (NTP) for its proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility to be sited at the Batangas Bay.

In a statement to the media, AG&P indicated that its LNG facility shall be called Philippines LNG (PLNG), and it will store and dispatch LNG to power plant, industrial and commercial customers as well as other end-users.

There had been no specific off-taker or gas purchaser that has been named by the company yet; and it has not also divulged the scale of investment for the planned facility.

The capacity of the proposed LNG terminal will be 3.0 mtpa, and it is targeted to be an onshore facility.

“AG&P has already completed its pre-development work for PLNG, which is expected to be commissioned by summer 2022,” the company said.

AG&P further noted that its LNG terminal will have “scalable onshore regasification capacity of 420 mmscfd (million standard cubic feet per day) and almost 200,000 cbm (cubic meter) of storage that will ensure high availability and reliability of natural gas for its customers.”

Queries were raised if this is the LNG project partnership with San Miguel Corporation that businessman Ramon S. Ang has previously hinted to the media, but there had been no response from AG&P as of press time.

AG&P is a company with investments in the gas sector in various parts of the world. Shareholders in the company comprise of American, Kuwaiti (via Asiya Investments) as well as Filipino investors led by Anscor of the Soriano group.

Relative to the newly approved LNG venture, Karthik Sathyamoorthy, president of LNG Terminals and Logistics of AG&P, said the company “is working to bring this safe, environmentally-friendly, competitive fuel to our customers by the summer of 2022 and hope that the wide availability of our natural gas will spur manufacturing and jobs in the Philippines.”

He added that the company’s investment goals “are aligned with the DOE’s forward-looking vision for clean energy and look forward to supporting it.”

In Sathyamoorthy’s view, “the Philippines LNG terminal is a landmark development for the country that will accelerate industrialization, create jobs, lower pollution and trigger overall economic and social progress.”