Black & Veatch completes feasibility study for Colombian LNG terminal

LNG infrastructure solutions provider Black & Veatch on May 9 announced the completion of a feasibility study for the planned Andes Energy Terminal (AET), an LNG regasification terminal and power plant project in Colombia. 

The feasibility study assessed various aspects of the project, including site suitability, project design requirements, capital and operating costs, financial viability, financing options, climate resilience, and implementation and construction plans. The project, situated near the port city of Buenaventura on Colombia's Pacific coast, is strategically located within an area designated for industrial and port expansion.

Developed by the AET sponsor group as an independent, fully private endeavour, the Andes Energy Terminal project encompasses an LNG terminal for receiving imported LNG, a land-based regasification plant, an LNG truck loading terminal, a power plant, and associated gas and electrical transmission infrastructure.

"It is a reality recognised by Ecopetrol and by the ministry of mines and energy that Colombia will face a natural gas deficit starting in 2025 — a deficit that is expected to worsen gradually until most of the gas that the country consumes will have to be imported," stated Manuel Tenorio, chairman of the Andes Energy Terminal.

“The solutions of imported gas from Venezuela or the exploitation of offshore fields in the Colombian Caribbean are not practical or realistic solutions to this crisis,” Tenorio added. “Unless LNG import and regasification capacity is expanded in the near term with new infrastructure in Buenaventura, the Colombian industry and households, particularly in the southwest, will suffer the consequences of this looming shortage of gas.”