Update: Chile’s 3rd LNG import terminal given environmental nod

(Updated with a comment by a Höegh LNG spokeswoman)

The Penco-Lirquén LNG import terminal and the accompanying onshore 640 MW gas-fired power plant in Chile have received the final environmental approval.

The Biobiogenera import terminal project (Octopus LNG), in which U.S. LNG export player Cheniere owns a 50 percent stake, has been approved by the Evaluation Commission of the Biobio region on Monday.

During a session interrupted by protests, 10 votes were in favor of approving the project with two eligible voters not present at the meeting, local media reported.

According to the reports, several protests and roadblocks have been organized in the province of Concepción as opposition on the LNG power project builds up.

The proposed $175 million LNG import terminal will be Chile’s third.

LNG would be delivered, stored and regasified at the proposed floating storage regasification unit (FSRU), to be supplied by Höegh LNG.

The Norway-based company signed a 20-year deal in May last year with Octopus LNG to provide the FSRU for the Penco-Lirquén LNG import terminal to be located in Concepción Bay.

A spokeswoman for Höegh LNG told LNG World News on Thursday that the company’s eight FSRU (HN 2865), which has been designed for this project, is “on schedule and she is due for delivery in the first quarter of 2018“.

To remind, Octopus LNG also contracted Duro Felguera for the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up of the import facility.

Central El Campesino, that is developing the 640 MW gas-fired combined-cycle power plant, is expected to begin imports of US LNG in 2019 under a 20-year deal with Cheniere Marketing for a volume of 600,000 mt/year from the Corpus Christi liquefaction project.

LNG World News contacted Cheniere seeking comment on the project’s approval, but we did not receive a response by the time this article was published.

LNG World News Staff