Chile’s GNL Quintero expands as Penco LNG faces new delays

Chile’s GNL Quintero has appointed Amec Foster Wheeler to evaluate the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids and to provide engineering services as it presses ahead with the next phase of expansion at the regasification terminal.

The news comes amid reports of delays to Penco-Lirquen LNG, Chile’s third LNG-import project, which was due to receive its first cargoes next spring.

GNL Quintero plans to double its capacity. The 2.5 million tonne a year LNG terminal in Valparaiso province is investing in a third storage tank and additional equipment.

Wood Mackenzie expects LNG demand in Chile to more than triple by 2035.

However, Höegh LNG told a results call last week that it may switch the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) that it has allocated to Penco LNG, amid reports that the project faces delays of six months to a year.

Höegh president Sveinung Støhle said the company may re-allocate its eighth FSRU to a project for which it is short-listed that has a 2018 start date. Höegh signed a 20-year charter deal in 2015 to supply a 170,000mᵌ FSRU to Penco-Lirquen LNG.

In a third LNG-linked development, Engie Energia Chile has bought the local LNG reception, regasification, storage and transport company Gas Stream. Small-scale specialist Gas Stream operates nine satellite regasification plants in Chile and is building others.

Engie is a partner in Mejillones LNG in northern Chile and in the Norandino gas pipeline that connects the national grids of Chile and Argentina. Gas Stream is leading the drive to promote LNG as transport fuel in Chile, persuading mining and industrial companies to switch their fleets to run on cleaner-burning gas.