Uruguay awards first contract for LNG terminal

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Aug. 3 -- Uruguay state oil company Administracion Nacional de Combustibles, Alcohol y Portland (ANCAP) has awarded Foster Wheeler AG’s global engineering and construction group an engineering contract for a new LNG receiving terminal to be built in Montevideo, in Uruguay’s Rio de la Plata region. A contract value was not disclosed.

Scope of work includes technical assistance through initial phases of the development of the project, conceptual design of the terminal, and development of the invitation to bid for the role of owner and operator of the terminal. The owner-operator role, said the announcement, will include the responsibility for, among other elements, the engineering, procurement, and construction contract.

Foster Wheeler’s scope also includes the supervision of the EPC contractor from detailed engineering through to start-up.

To help meet projected gas demand, Uruguay and Argentina signed an energy cooperation agreement in July 2007 for construction of a regasification plant in Uruguay. The project will supply natural gas for local consumption in Uruguay and to help meet demand in Argentina.

It will use existing natural gas infrastructures between both countries, called Cruz del Sur Gas pipeline, which connects Montevideo to Buenos Aires through an underground pipeline about 125 miles long, with 31 miles beneath Rio de la Plata, to deliver up to 6 million cu m/day of gas to the Buenos Aires area.

The promoters of GNL del Plata are the state-owned companies ANCAP, Administracion Nacional de Usinas y Trasmisiones Electricas of Uruguay, and Energia Argentina Sociedad Anonima SA of Argentina.