Projects

LNG to the Eight Region General description

In May 2004 former President Ricardo Lagos entrusted ENAP to lead a LNG project to provide the country with the necessary energy autonomy following the successive cuts in the supply of Argentine gas to Chile, with the consequent economic damage to industry and electricity generators which had to resort to alternative but more expensive fuels.

The liquefied natural gas (LNG) complex promoted by ENAP, together with Endesa Chile, Metrogas and BG Group, consisted of the construction of the basic infrastructure for importing LNG from overseas markets and distributing it in Chile as natural gas in a gaseous state. This project therefore included the installation of a sea terminal to receive LNG carried in tanker ships and a plant to re-gasify and later distribute it through pipelines located in Chile’s central zone.

President Michelle Bachelet, on May 16, 2006 led the stone-laying ceremony in Quintero for the construction of the first re-gasification plant that today forms part of the LNG complex in Chile.

The LNG project cost a total of US$ 1,066 million and is already supplying natural gas to the country permanently at competitive prices, whether for feeding combined-cycle electricity plants, industrial boilers and commercial and residential consumption, through Metrogas, Energas and GasValpo. These distributor companies have confirmed their interest in the supplying of LNG, while ENAP’s own refineries, Aconcagua, require this product to be able to operate, representing firm demand of around 1.7 million cubic meters daily.

The LNG complex in Quintero also included a mooring facility 1,878 meters in length, 5 unloading arms and steam return, two 160,000 m3 tanks and another of 14,000 m3 which will be the first to start operating for the storage of LNG.