AES, Engie Sign LNG Marketing Pact
France’s Engie and Caribbean-based AES Andres, 90%-owned by US global power generator AES Corp, have signed a binding deal jointly to market 0.7mn mt/yr of LNG for up to 12 years.
The gas will come from Engie's portfolio, though primarily from the Cameron LNG export plant in Louisiana due online in 2018.
AES Andres will provide access to its 1.5mn mt/yr regasification terminal in the Dominican Republic, in service since December 2003. In effect, AES is providing the French utility and trader with the benefits of a storage base from which the two can jointly market LNG in the Caribbean region.
View of the AES Andres LNG import terminal in Dominican Republic which opened 13 years ago (Photo credit: AES)
Engie Global LNG CEO Philip Olivier said: “We are delighted to initiate this new partnership with AES which has an attractive existing platform for LNG import.” It added that LNG could provide a cleaner, more cost-effective alternative to oil-fueled power generation in the region, and a fuel for industrial customers, and smaller scale use, for instance by ships.
Earlier in 2016 Engie contracted to supply up to 0.4mn mt/yr to Panama-based AES subsidiary Gas Natural Atlantico for Panama’s Costa Norte LNG terminal starting up in 2018 in the city of Colon; AES will have a 380-MW gas-fired power plant there and a 180,000 m³ LNG storage tank.
Manuel Perez Dubuc, AES' Mexico, Central America and Caribbean chief, said the company was proud of its leadership in bringing LNG to the region.
AES Andres has a 319-MW gas-fired power plant adjacent to the LNG import terminal which has 160,000 m³ storage capacity in the Dominican Republic. AES Corp has a 90% stake in the company. Engie, one of the world’s largest LNG importers and traders, has few interests in the Caribbean – an area where shipping is under pressure to become less pollutive.
Elsewhere in the region, the US territory of Puerto Rico has had an LNG terminal and gas-fired plant in operation since 2000, while Jamaica announced the arrival of its first ever LNG cargo, aboard Golar Arctic, on August 5 this year.
Mark Smedley