Panama has imported its first LNG cargo to commission the newly built $1 billion Costa Norte facility and power plant at Colon, expected to be a launch-pad for LNG trade across Central America. The Engie-chartered tanker ‘Provalys’ arrived last week, carrying a cargo exported from the Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana, in March, Reuters reported.
AES Panama, a unit of US electric utility AES with a 50% stake in the facility, announced the delivery on Friday, noting that the cargo will supply the 380 MW AES Colon gas-fired power plant as test flows commence.
In 2017, Engie and AES established a joint venture to market and sell LNG to third parties in Central America, using the 1.5-million-tonnes-per-annum (mtpa) capacity Panama terminal as a distribution hub.
Under the deal, Engie will supply up to 0.4 million mtpa to the power plant from 2018. The remaining terminal capacity is primarily available for the joint venture to market and sell to third parties, including up to 0.7 mtpa of LNG sourced from Engie mainly through the Cameron gas liquefaction project in the United States, which is due to start production in early 2019.
This joint venture expands the marketing agreement that the two companies signed in late 2016, whereby both groups agreed to jointly market LNG in the Caribbean, from AES’ Andres regasification facility in the Dominican Republic.
The combined regasification capacity of Andres in the Dominican Republic and Costa Norte in Panamá is approximately 3 mtpa.
