Reuters: Philippines set to start LNG imports by early next year

Australia-listed Energy World Corp Ltd expects its nearly $1 billion liquefied natural gas hub and power plant in the Philippines to be running by early 2015, paving the way to a new market for imports of the super-chilled fuel.

Purchases by the Southeast Asian nation would be welcome news for major LNG producers such as Chevron, ExxonMobil and Total, which are facing uncertainty about longer-term demand in Japan and South Korea, the top two buyers of the cleaner fuel.

"We expect to be ready to operate at the end of this year or early 2015," Energy World Chief Executive Stewart W. G. Elliot told Reuters on Monday. "Total cost is close to a billion dollars, including a 650 megawatt combined cycle power station."

That time frame would foreshadow the construction of two other LNG import and storage terminals in the next five years in separate projects proposed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and local firm First Gen Corp. MORE