Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- September 7, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — First Gen
Corp. of the Lopez Group is still open to partnering with Philippine National
Oil Co. (PNOC) even as it pushes through with its own liquefied natural gas
(LNG) terminal, a company official said.
First Gen vice president Jerome
Cainglet said the company would look at PNOC’s bid to find a partner through a
solicited scheme.
“As far as we’re concerned, there
are efforts to get the LNG development going, if we can participate, why not,”
Cainglet said.
Last month, PNOC rejected all
unsolicited proposals for its LNG terminal and resorted to solicited offers.
Cainglet said First Gen’s $1-billion
onshore storage and regasification terminal remains on track and is also open
to other parties interested to partner with them.
“We’re still working on the project.
We need to complete requirements. We’ve always stated that, for our LNG
project, were open to partnerships,” he said.
“Right now, we’re doing it on our
own, but it doesn’t mean that by the time we submit a proposal to the Department
of Energy we may or may not have a partner or partners,” he said.
The First Gen official said they are
in talks with a number of interested parties for potential partnership.
Moreover, the Lopez company is
currently in the middle of tendering the engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) contract.
“We want to put ourselves in the
position to be able to actually issue a notice to proceed if and when the time
comes,” Cainglet said.
The DOE is accepting letters of
intent (LOI) from companies interested to build the LNG terminal under the
Philippine Downstream Natural Gas Regulation (PDNGR), which details the rules
and regulations governing the downstream natural gas industry to develop a
market and gain energy security and sustainability.
After submitting LOI, interested
companies will have to submit formal proposals to the agency.
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