Chile's liquefied natural gas import terminal in Quintero Bay, which is set to ramp up next month, will have the capacity to send out 15 million cubic meters of gas per day starting in 2010, Chile's Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman said on Monday.
The project is part of the country's push to break its dependence on unreliable supplies of fuel, though analysts say LNG imports alone will not be enough to reverse its recent surge in diesel-fired power generation.
BG Group (BG.L) is contracted to supply up to 1.7 million tonnes per year of the super-cooled gas to the Quintero terminal in central Chile for 21 years, the first drop of which is expected to arrive on June 28 from Trinidad.
"(The shipment) will arrive at the end of this month and operations will start in July," Chile's Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman told reporters at an energy conference in Peru's capital, Lima.
He said the terminal is expected to push out between 4 million and 6 million cubic meters of gas per day in 2009, while it should be able to boost output to around 15 million cubic meters per day by either the end of the first quarter, or the beginning of the second quarter, next year.
Currently, natural gas accounts for 2 percent of Chile's power generation -- having suffered supply cuts from Argentina -- with hydroelectric generation accounting for 50 percent, diesel around 27 percent and coal some 15 percent.
Natural gas from Quintero will be used to supply regional industry and the domestic market in Santiago, Chile's capital.
Tokman said a similar-sized LNG terminal in northern Chile, which is run by GdF Suez (GSZ.PA) and Chile's state-owned copper producer Codelco, is on schedule to start up by the end of 2009, or January 2010.
The project is part of the country's push to break its dependence on unreliable supplies of fuel, though analysts say LNG imports alone will not be enough to reverse its recent surge in diesel-fired power generation.
BG Group (BG.L) is contracted to supply up to 1.7 million tonnes per year of the super-cooled gas to the Quintero terminal in central Chile for 21 years, the first drop of which is expected to arrive on June 28 from Trinidad.
"(The shipment) will arrive at the end of this month and operations will start in July," Chile's Energy Minister Marcelo Tokman told reporters at an energy conference in Peru's capital, Lima.
He said the terminal is expected to push out between 4 million and 6 million cubic meters of gas per day in 2009, while it should be able to boost output to around 15 million cubic meters per day by either the end of the first quarter, or the beginning of the second quarter, next year.
Currently, natural gas accounts for 2 percent of Chile's power generation -- having suffered supply cuts from Argentina -- with hydroelectric generation accounting for 50 percent, diesel around 27 percent and coal some 15 percent.
Natural gas from Quintero will be used to supply regional industry and the domestic market in Santiago, Chile's capital.
Tokman said a similar-sized LNG terminal in northern Chile, which is run by GdF Suez (GSZ.PA) and Chile's state-owned copper producer Codelco, is on schedule to start up by the end of 2009, or January 2010.