First Gen aims to select partners for LNG terminal within the year

Lopez-led First Gen Corp. has set a firm schedule for its plan to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and regasification facility, including the selection of a partner this year and the start of construction next year, company officials said.
“Our intention is to finalize that partnership arrangement within the year,” said Francis Giles B. Puno, First Gen president and chief operating officer, in a briefing on Wednesday, May 9, after the company’s annual stockholders meeting.
He said the selection of the partner is one of the “key deliverables” of the company in 2018.
“Ideally, we bring in maybe at least one foreign partner and potentially local partners as well,” he said. “We don’t have to solely underwrite this transaction.”
Mr. Puno described the facility as an “important infrastructure for the country,” making First Gen open to partnerships.
“We’ve been having this conversion with a number of foreign and local partners,” he said.
Emmanuel P. Singson, First Gen senior vice-president, said most of the company’s capital expenditure this year would go to the initial phase of the LNG facility. — Victor V. Saulon