Chile's GNL Quintero Hits Milestone, Matches Prior Gas Imports
August 19 2010 - 4:23PM
Dow Jones News
GNL Quintero, in central Chile and one of the nation's two
liquefied natural gas regasification terminals, already proved its
value this winter as peak output matched the maximum amount of gas
central Chile used to import from Argentina through two
cross-border pipelines, the company's chief Antonio Bacigalupo said
Thursday.
Liquefied natural gas, or LNG, was developed as an energy source
during former President Michelle Bachelet's term, in an effort to
diversify the country's energy matrix and increase its security,
after Argentina sharply reduced its natural gas exports to Chile
starting in the mid-2000s and a 2008 drought severely curtailed
hydroelectric production.
"On our busiest days we're already supplying the system with as
much natural gas as used to be brought into Chile at the height of
our imports from Argentina," Bacigalupo told reporters on the
sidelines of an energy seminar.
GNL Quintero, which supplied customers on the central SIC grid,
has a maximum capacity of 10 million cubic meters a day, or the
equivalent of some 2,300 megawatts once converted.
The SIC grid supplies power to over 90% of Chile's population
and covers an area from northern Tal Tal to the southern island of
Chiloe.
Meanwhile, earlier this year, Chile's state oil and gas company,
Empresa Nacional de Petroleo SA, said it's planning to transport
LNG to its Bio Bio refinery from GNL Quintero, in which it holds a
20% stake.
GNL Quintero's Bacigalupo said his company is looking for more
business opportunities using the option of transporting LNG, adding
that capacity could be dramatically increased with minor
investments.
"If need be and we see there is sufficient demand, we could
practically double our capacity to some 20 million cubic meters a
day with minor investments," he said.
In northern Chile, meanwhile, the GNL Mejillones, a joint
venture between Chilean state copper mining company Corporacion
Nacional del Cobre, or Codelco, and France's GDF Suez SA (GSZ.FR),
supplies customers on the SING grid, which is home to the vast
majority of the nation's bustling copper mining industry.
Chile produces just over a third of the globe's copper
supply.
GNL Mejillones helped secure energy supply on the SING grid in
recent weeks as power generator AES Gener SA's (AESZF, GENER.SN)
642-megawatt natural gas plant in neighboring northern Argentina
has cut off supply to Chile to cover increased demand in
Argentina.
-By Anthony Esposito, Dow Jones Newswires; 56-2-715-8929;
anthony.esposito@dowjones.com
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