ENGIE and AES sign agreement to expand liquid natural gas marketing partnership to Central America

ENGIE and the AES Corporation recently agreed to enter into a joint venture to market and sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Central America, expanding their joint marketing agreement signed late last year.

The joint venture will use the Costa Norte LNG terminal in Colón, Panama, which is currently under construction and has a total capacity of approximately 1.5 million tons per annum (mtpa). AES and Inversiones Bahía own the terminal 50/50.

AES is also currently constructing a 380 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) on the same site. The company said 25 percent of the Costa Norte LNG terminal’s capacity will be used for the CCGT, and ENGIE will supply up to 0.4 mtpa to the CCGT beginning in 2018.

The remaining capacity is predominantly 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.

This joint venture builds upon the agreement signed late last year in which 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.