Peru LNG consortium to award EPC contract in 1Q06 - Peru
Published: Thursday, October 13, 2005 18:33 (GMT -0400)
bnamericas.com
The Peru LNG consortium led by US oil company Hunt Oil plans to award an EPC contract to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Peru's Cañete province in the first quarter of 2006, a Hunt Oil spokesperson told BNamericas in an email.
Peru LNG is managing the construction of the US$2bn project, which includes the liquefaction plant about 170km south of capital city Lima at Pampa Melchorita as well as related pipeline and port infrastructure. The project is scheduled to start operations in 2009.
Hunt Oil had planned to award the EPC contract as early as 2002 but the project was delayed while the consortium obtained permits from Peru's government and sought buyers for the gas in Mexico.
The final engineering design phase of the plant is almost complete, the spokesperson said, adding Hunt Oil has "screened" all possible EPC contractors with the capability and experience necessary to build such a plant.
"Determining factors for the selection process were both familiarity with the technology involved in the fabrication of the processing facility and capacity to undertake the work in the time period specified," the spokesperson said.
"There are currently 2-3 companies in the world with the capacity to undertake this work," the spokesperson added. Potential builders would likely be international consortiums made up of combinations of US, European and Asian contractors.
The Camisea upstream consortium will supply 620 million cubic meters a day of gas from blocks 88 and 56 in the Amazon jungle region to the liquefaction plant as stipulated by the terms of a contract between the two consortiums.
Spanish oil company Repsol YPF, which holds a 20% stake in the Peru LNG consortium, will export the 4 million tonnes a year of LNG the plant will produce.
The LNG from the project will likely be exported to the US West Coast and/or a regasification plant on Mexico's Pacific coast. Hunt Oil has held talks with Mexico's energy ministry about LNG supplies but no offtaker agreements have been announced.
Hunt Oil holds a 50% interest in the Peru LNG consortium and South Korea's SK Corporation has the remaining 30%.
By Allison Murray
BNamericas.com |
