Plan reveals Colombia may need 2nd LNG terminal

Colombia will require a second natural gas import entry point if no new production fields come online in the next seven years to significantly increase supply.

That's according to mining and energy planning unit UPME's latest provisional natural gas supply plan. The government agency will receive comment through July 11.

The document highlights that due to lower infrastructure costs, it would be "convenient" to build a terminal at Pacific port Buenaventura with regasification and storage capacities of at least 400Mf3/d (11.3Mm3/d) and 171,000m3, respectively.

The country's first LNG import facility at Cartagena on the Caribbean coast is scheduled to begin operations at year-end.

The plan also recommends expanding transport capacity of the Mariquita-Gualanday pipeline with a 6-inch loop to cover demand in departments Tolima and Huila.

Other projects envision installation of 500hp of compression capacity on the El Porvenir-Apiay pipeline and construction of a pipeline to interconnect nodes Jobo-Medellín-Mariquita and Bogotá, as well as a 15-inch loop between Jobo and Filadelfia.