Lopez-led First Gen Corporation has inked a 10-year time charter party with Danish firm Svitzer for the provision of towage and other vessel support services for the former’s interim liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facility.

In the deal that was signed with Lopez firm subsidiary FGEN LNG Corporation, it was stipulated that Svitzer will provide four (4) new build 75-tons bollard pull tug vessels with ‘class notation’ under Lloyd’s register that will underpin the floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) of the LNG terminal venture.

Svitzer is a company that is into provision of towage and marine services to clients, like First Gen; and it draws support on track record it already established via long-term contracts with industry leaders, including multinational giants Shell, Chevron, BP and Qatar Petroleum.

Part of the support services it will extend would be for FSRU’s berthing, un-berthing, navigation assistance as well as other services like fire fighting, pollution control, port and vessel security services, pilot and boarding party transfer and fender management.

The FSRU facility of First Gen is being advanced to commercial operation by the third quarter of 2022, and this is being aptly timed to meet the gas requirements of power facilities, especially with the anticipated decline in the output of the Malampaya field.

FGEN LNG has earmarked US$120 million capital expenditures (capex) this year as it gains headway into the construction of its LNG terminal project, that upon completion, would then usher in landscape changes in the gas sector of the country.

First Gen reiterated “the entry of LNG will encourage new power plant developments, as well as industrial and transport industries, to consider it as a replacement to more costly and polluting fuels.”
The company itself has blueprinted a greenfield gas-fired power project that may add 1,200-megawatt capacity in the country’s power supply if this venture will be concretized as it is targeted for commercial fruition in 2024-2025.

It emphasized that for its proposed LNG-fed Santa Maria power venture, pre-investments were already carried out in certain common infrastructure, including pre-development works and securing permits for the project.

The Lopez firm constantly indicated that its LNG project will cater both to the needs of its existing gas plants, as well as other third party users in power plant applications as well as prospective industrial users.

Gas market expansion is similarly being pushed along prospective micro-grid domains including economic zones, and in island-jurisdictions that are not directly linked to the main grids.