EIG, Fluxys buy into Chile's largest LNG import terminal
US-based energy investor EIG and Belgian gas infrastructure operator Fluxys announced on March 28 they would acquire an 80% stake in Chile's largest LNG regasification terminal from Spain's Enagas and Canada's OMERS Infrastructure.
Operational since 2009, the GNL Quintero terminal is capable of importing up to 15mn m3/day of gas, accounting for three quarters of Chile's overall regasification capacity. In 2021, it accounted for 67% of the LNG and piped gas imported into the South American country. It also has 334,000 m3 of storage capacity and can load trucks with up to 2,500 m3/d of LNG.
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The terminal's strategic location in Quintero Bay gives it access to a diverse base of customers in central Chile, including in the residential, commercial, industrial, transportation and power generation sectors, EIG said. The investor is involved in Chilean renewables, operating 210-MW of photovoltaic capacity in the country. It aspires to become one of Chile's three biggest green hydrogen producers, with plans to install 200 GW of renewable power there for the purpose by 2040.
"We are thrilled by the opportunity to invest in Quintero, a company that aligns perfectly with our focus on strategic, high-quality infrastructure that is critical to the region it serves and yields attractive, contracted cash flows," EIG's chairman and CEO R. Blair Thomas said in a statement.
Fluxys is looking to expand its LNG operations outside of Europe, where it already has interests in three gasification terminals. In Latin America, it is already an investor in the TBG company that operates the 2,600-km Brazilian section of the Bolivia-Brazil pipeline.
"Our partnership in Quintero brings Fluxys closer to hydrogen developments in Chile and supports the import of hydrogen in Belgium," Fluxys CEO Pascal De Buck commented.
Neither company said how much they were paying for the stake in the terminal.