LNG regasification terminal moves step forward

Black & Veatch has completed a feasibility study for the planned Andes Energy Terminal, LNG regasification terminal and power plant.

The study assessed site suitability, project design requirements, capital and operating costs, financial viability, financing options, climate resilience, and implementation and construction plans. Beginning with a site assessment that focused on the landscape of the area, regulatory restrictions and accessibility, the study then moved into design and financial estimates and planning. The study’s final phases assessed climate resilience and mitigation, and financial modeling and analysis.

“Black & Veatch’s more than 45 years of experience in developing projects in Latin America and over 100 years of experience in critical infrastructure aligned our team perfectly to assess the Andes Energy Terminal (AET),” said Laszlo von Lazar, president of Black & Veatch’s energy and process industries business. “Working with the AET team to strategize around the project and its capacity to serve southwest and central Colombia’s energy needs displays our global commitment to delivering safe and reliable energy.”

The project is near the port city of Buenaventura on Columbia’s Pacific coast, within an area designated for industrial and port expansion; it has been developed by the AET sponsor group as an independent, fully private endeavor. It consists of an LNG terminal for receiving imported LNG, land-based regasification plant, LNG truck loading terminal, power plant and associated gas and electrical transmission infrastructure.

“It is a reality recognized by Ecopetrol and by the ministry of Mines & Energy that Colombia will face a natural gas deficit starting in 2025 — a deficit that is expected to worsen gradually until most of the gas that the country consumes will have to be imported,” said Manuel Tenorio, the Andes Energy Terminal’s chairman.

“The solutions of imported gas from Venezuela or the exploitation of offshore fields in the Colombian Caribbean are not practical or realistic solutions to this crisis,” Tenorio added. “Unless LNG import and regasification capacity is expanded in the near term with new infrastructure in Buenaventura, the Colombian industry and households, particularly in the southwest, will suffer the consequences of this looming shortage of gas. The regasification pant in the Pacific coast is an undeniable need, and we are in a privileged position to be able to deliver the solution to this challenge with the Andes Energy Terminal project.”