LT Group to join LNG bandwagon

By Lenie Lectura – June 17, 2019
from Business Mirror

THE group of Lucio Tan is ready to join the liquefied natural gas (LNG) bandwagon, with an investment estimated at $1.5 billion.

Gerry Tee, overall head of LTGC Distillery Operations and Absolut Distillers Inc. chief operating officer, said on Saturday this project will be pursued through an LT power firm in partnership with a foreign company based in the region.

He, however, could not disclose the identity of the partner, citing confidentiality agreement.

“LT Power…I forgot the exact name. It’s a new company that will partner with a foreign company. We will have a partner. I am under nondisclosure agreement, though. Our partner will talk with the Department of Energy (DOE). They are foreign, but not Chinese. Once they apply with the DOE, we will announce. They are LNG experts,” Tee said.

The plan to venture into LNG was hatched two years ago when the group considered the possibility to utilize its 38-hectare property in Batangas for its LNG project.

“This is a project of Bong Tan and his dad to utilize the Pinamucan property in Batangas as a possible site for LNG project. We’ve been looking at our assets and we saw this,” Tee said.

The Pinamucan property currently houses Himmel Industries Inc., a chemical trading company which currently supplies to almost all industries such as paper, glue, food, pharmaceutical, paint, ink, plastic, printing, rubber, PVC, cement, textile, tobacco and other products.

Tee said Philippine Airlines’s (PAL) 10 fuel jet tanks are also located within the property. The rest is idle space.

Should the LNG project take off, Tee said Himmel Industries would be relocated, adding the plan is to construct regasification facilities, LNG terminal and power plants, possibly with a power-generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW).

“Initial data showed we need around $1.5 billion for the power plant, regas and distribution. We are in the initial stages of getting permits and to reconfigure the land to put up the equipment,” he said.

Tee said the LT group is very much ready to compete head on with other power firms that are into LNG.  Lopez-led First Gen Corp. recently inaugurated its LNG terminal in its Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.

Aside from First Gen, Dennis A. Uy’s Phoenix Petroleum Philippines Inc. and partner China National Offshore Oil Corp. also have a notice to proceed from the DOE to pursue an LNG terminal in Batangas.

“We can compete. It’s a big pie. Our advantage is we own the land and we are close to the substation at transmission lines. We know that Malampaya is depleting soon so we want to take this opportunity to expand and utilize the land,” he said. “We have renewable and clean energy, but not in the magnitude of Aboitiz and Lopez, but we are going there. We are just looking for better partners,” he said.