MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

British Gas to provide Chile's energy alternative

British Gas was the winner of the international bid to develop Chile's natural gas mega project, which has the purpose of ensuring the country's natural gas supply in the coming years plus gradually cutting back on the high dependency on Argentine sources.

Chile's National Oil Company, ENAP, and the companies controlling the project, including Metrogas, Endesa, Colbún and AES Gener, awarded the coveted contract to build Chile's Liquid Natural Gas (GNL) project.

France and Belgium's Suez Energy, British Petroleum, Australia's Woodside, and Spain's Repsol-YPF also bid for the project.

The project which is expected to begin operating in 2009 will demand an investment estimated in 400 million US dollars and includes a port terminal in central Chile where vessels loaded with liquid natural gas will call, plus a plant for the re-gasification of the fuel.

The plant will have a maximum capacity of 15 million cubic metres per day and storage capacity but will begin supplying five million cubic metres per day, 25% of Chile's natural gas demand, which is approximately the volume needed for generating electricity.

Argentina has been supplying natural gas to Chile for over a decade but in the last two years insufficient production forced Argentina to privilege domestic demand cutting exports.

Last year's cuts in gas provision exposed how dependent Chile was on an only source of energy, (Argentina) and President Ricardo Lagos' administration began working on an alternative.

British Gas is a worldwide consortium, with operations in 20 countries in all continents. In Latin America, BG it controls Comgas, Brazil's largest gas distributor; owns 45% of Argentina's Metrogas, and important natural gas reserves in Bolivia.