The government plans to start construction of a planned $2-billion integrated liquefied natural gas terminal in the last quarter of the year or early 2019, an energy official said over the weekend.
“We need it to realize fourth quarter of this year but of course we’re also looking at early quarter or first semester of next year. We’re looking at hopefully before the end of this year or early next year, to have the groundbreaking for this project,” Energy Undersecretary Donato Marcos said.
The department earlier set the target for the groundbreaking of the country’s first LNG terminal in June with completion scheduled by 2020 to 2021 in time for the start of decline of production of the Malampaya gas project in northwest Palawan.
Marcos said the Malampaya gas project was expected to supply an equivalent of just 1,000 megawatts of power capacity by 2024, or less than a third of its current supply.