Samat LNG has signed a long-term lease agreement with state-owned Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) to secure land for its planned small-scale facility in Limay, Bataan.
Samat LNG’s founder and CEO Roy Watson signed the lease agreement with PNOC’s president Oliver Butalid on September 14.
The agreement is for 4.5 hectares of land at PNOC’s industrial park in Limay, Bataan, PNOC said.
PNOC did not provide any additional information.
In January this year, Samat LNG received the notice to proceed (NTP) from the Philippine Department of Energy.
This permit allows the firm to move forward with its small-scale LNG project in Bataan.
According to Samat LNG’s website, the company’s Mariveles LNG terminal would be the first small-scale LNG terminal in the Philippines and is designed to handle about 200,000- 400,000 tonnes of LNG per year.
Moreover, Samat LNG plans to deliver LNG from its Mariveles terminal to customers for use in power generation and industrial applications.
The firm also plans to supply LNG as fuel for trucks and buses.
Samat LNG plans to distribute the fuel to customers by a fleet of trucks, small LNG vessels, and barges.
LNG import in Philippines
The Philippines has several LNG import facilities on the table as the Malampaya gas field becomes less reliable in producing and providing sufficient fuel supply for the country’s existing gas-fired power plants.
In April this year, Singapore’s LNG firm AG&P kicked off commissioning activities at the first import terminal in the Philippines following the arrival of the 137,500-cbm FSU Ish at the terminal’s jetty in Batangas Bay.
The LNG import facility features the converted FSU, which AG&P chartered from Adnoc for a period of up to 15 years.
Besides PHLNG, First Gen’s Batangas FSRU-based LNG import terminal should launch operations later this year as well.
BW LNG’s 162,000-cbm FSRU BW Batangas arrived in Batangas in June to start serving First Gen’s terminal.
Also, Shell suppled the first LNG cargo for commissioning purposes to First Gen’s FSRU-based terminal in Batangas in August, according to First Gen.