It was incorporated on June 30; EMA's deputy CEO listed as director
Ronnie Lim, Business Times 7 Jul 09;
THE new Singapore LNG Corporation (SLNG) taking over the $1 billion-1.5 billion liquefied natural gas terminal project was incorporated on June 30 - the very day the government announced the move, reflecting its determination to get on with the crucial project.
SLNG's shareholder is the Energy Market Authority - now spearheading the project - with its only listed director at the moment being David Tan, EMA's deputy chief executive officer, a check with the Registry of Companies and Businesses showed.
But SLNG's ranks - currently comprising about 20 staff seconded from the original developer PowerGas and also EMA - will swell, even potentially tripling, very soon, and will include foreign LNG talent currently lacking here.
Announcing the government's takeover of the LNG terminal last week, Senior Minister of State (Trade & Industry) S Iswaran stressed that the immediate priority was to effect a smooth project transition so that it goes on 'without any further slippage in time'.
'PowerGas will continue to be involved by seconding staff to this new company, as they've invested time and built up some level of capability . . . and the new company will tap on this,' he added.
As is, the terminal will now start up in 2013, a year later than originally scheduled.
EMA CEO Lawrence Wong said that building on its initial 20 seconded personnel, including the entire PowerGas team which had worked on the project, 'we will recruit more, including potentially a new person to head the company'.
'We need engineers, we need people with LNG expertise, which won't be easy to find here as we don't have an LNG terminal at the moment. So we will be bringing them in from outside. It will be a challenge to find the right people who have done such projects, and the timeline is quite challenging,' he added.
Ultimately, SLNG hopes to employ between 40 and 60 people to handle the specialised, high-skill jobs.
'Some of these will be filled by Singaporeans as we want to bring them on board to learn the craft as we are building up a new industry . . . and we will also bring in, selectively, people who have done such LNG projects overseas, so there can be technology transfer.'
Mr Iswaran said that one of SLNG's immediate tasks will also be to vet the bids by three competing contractors for the main EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract for the terminal, and finalise this.
'Once we've seen the offers, we will have better sense of the investment numbers,' when asked about the cost of the LNG terminal, which he said was typically in the $1 billion-1.5 billion range, although costs of materials such as steel and other components have come down, he added.
SLNG, together with MTI and the Finance Ministry will also study various options and work out the form government financing for the terminal will eventually take.
'We will be able to work out a financing model and give some details in the coming months,' EMA's Mr Wong earlier told media.
SLNG will also work out the appropriate compensation terms with PowerGas to cover the latter's earlier preparatory work, such as front-end engineering design and consultancy undertaken.
