MANILA - First Gen Corp said on Wednesday it is open to work with more partners as it focuses on accelerating its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in the country.

"In addition to Tokyo Gas, First Gen is open to the possibility of working with additional partners if they will add value to the number of projects that we need to pursue including an interim offshore terminal project," said Francis Giles Puno, president and COO of First Gen during the company's annual stockholders meeting.

First Gen, along with Tokyo Gas held a ground breaking ceremony for their LNG project in 2019 and has filed for construction permit for the modification of its jetty at the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas City.

This interim terminal project will "accelerate" First Gen's LNG capability to as early as the third quarter of 2022, Puno added.

Once completed, the modified jetty can receive large and small scale LNG vessels including floating storage regasification units, First Gen said.

"We can proceed with the construction once the Department of Energy approves our permit to construct...This also allows us to continue to provide clean, far less polluting and competitively priced energy to the grid," Puno said.

"The modified jetty will have the ability to receive large and small scale LNG vessels including floating storage regasification units (FSRUs)," he added.

The FSRU is an LNG carrier that is capable of storing LNG with a capacity of 125,000 cubic meters to 170,000 cubic meters, he said.

• First Gen partners with Tokyo Gas for LNG project
• First Gen, Tokyo Gas break ground on LNG project

First Gen earlier disclosed it has shortlisted BW Gas of BW Group, GasLog LNG Services GasLog and Hoegh LNG of Norway for the FSRU project, Reuters said in a report.

• KKR acquiring stake in First Gen

Global investment firm KKR also recently acquired an 11.9 percent stake in First Gen through Valorous Asia Holdings.

news.abs-cbn.com is the official news website of ABS-CBN Corp., which is part of the Lopez Group of Companies.