Engie of France and AES have entered into a joint venture to market and sell LNG to third parties in Central America. The JV will utilize the Costa Norte LNG regasification terminal, currently under construction with a capacity of 1.5 million tons per annum (mtpa). Approximately 25% of the Costa Norte LNG regas capacity will supply fuel to a 380MW combined-cycle gas power plant in the city of Colón, Panama.
Costa Norte LNG, owned 50/50 by AES and Inversiones Bahía, is currently under construction in Colón; whereas AES owns the Colón CCGT that is being build nearby the regas facility. ENGIE committed to supply up to 0.4 mtpa of LNG to the gas power station starting from 2018.
The remaining capacity of the Costa Norte regas terminal is primarily available for the joint venture to market and sell to third parties. This includes up to 0.7 mtpa of LNG sourced from ENGIE mainly through the Cameron gas liquefaction project in the United States.
In a joint statement, Engie and AES said their joint venture would reinforce their joint marketing agreement signed in the autumn of 2016. Hereby 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.