BW to set up LNG terminal

BW Gas and InterEnergy Holdings have formed a joint venture to build an LNG terminal in San Pedro de Macoris, on the south-eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. Investment in the new terminal is expected to top $350m, with completion scheduled for 2014. 

“This announcement is one of the most important developments in the country's energy market in the last decade,” says Celso Marranzini, Dominican Government minister and CEO of the Dominican state’s electric sector holding company, Corporación Dominicana de Empresas Electricas Estatales (CDEEE). “The project confirms the significant and sustained interest by large international groups like BW and InterEnergy to invest in the Dominican Republic and, more specifically, in its power sector.”

The partnership will combine BW’s specialism in gas transport and storage with InterEnergy’s engineering and technical expertise within the energy sector and within the Dominican market. Together, the two companies hope to secure long-term gas contracts from multiple suppliers and snare the most competitive gas rates in the market. 

One of the terminal’s key clients will be the Martí Petroleum Group. The company’s Tropigás division is a leading propane and natural gas distribution business in the Dominican Republic, with over 3,000 industrial, commercial and residential propane clients and nearly two-thirds of the local natural gas distribution market. Martí may take a minority stake in the project.

InterEnergy has already made significant inroads within the Dominican market, having already invested in energy generation projects and companies around the country. “This project reinforces our long term commitment to bringing reliable and cost-effective electricity to the Dominican market by continuing to deploy significant capital in the country, and partnering with global industry leaders like BW,” says Rolando Gonzalez Bunster, InterEnergy’s chairman and CEO.

www.bwgas.com