President Bongbong Marcos on Friday praised the LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal facility of Tokyo Gas and Lopez-owned First Gen and noted its key role in the country’s transition from fossil fuels to green energy.
In his meeting with Tokyo Gas officials, led by its president and CEO Takashi Uchida, and First Gen chairman and CEO Federico “Piki” Lopez, Marcos said the opening of the LNG plant would increase the participation of natural gas as an energy source for power and transportation in the country.
First Gen is expected to start commercial operations of its LNG terminal in Batangas by June. The Lopez firm forged an 80-20 partnership with Tokyo Gas.
Marcos said the Philippines has been looking into a mix of renewable energy and traditional sources of energy to meet the growing demands of industries and households in the country.
In this regard, the opening of the First Gen and Tokyo Gas LNG import terminal could be a milestone in the country’s plans to find alternate sources of natural gas.
“And so we are encouraged that in view of Tokyo Gas that it is worth the investment then we feel that we are going down the right path for our country’s energy mix and we are grateful for that vote of confidence that you have shown by your investment in the future of the Philippine economy, the future especially of our energy supply from liquefied natural gas (LNG),” Marcos told First Gen and Tokyo Gas executives.
Marcos noted that LNG has been playing a large role in the country’s energy mix since 2017.
“And this was even before it was decided that LNG would create this large role in our energy mix because we are very much talking about the mix between renewables and traditional at the time. But now we are here now and certainly that is the most critical part of our plans for the future,” Marcos said.
Marcos noted that the country would have to wait to reap the benefits of renewable energy because putting up the infrastructure for such projects would take time.
“We are generally speaking [of] 6, 7 years so even if we begin tomorrow, we still have to work 6, 7 years and the question is what do we do in the meantime? We are examining the possibility… of course take more traditional wind and solar power, geothermal, all of these. But it will take time to come into play because the infrastructure has to be put in place,” the President said.
“That’s why we are doing all we can to find ways to further– to encourage extraction of LNG,” he said.
President Marcos along with other Philippine government officials and business leaders, is currently in Japan for a five-day working visit. (Presidential News Desk)
PBBM lauds First Gen and Tokyo Gas LNG project
Source: News Paper Radio
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