Peru LNG Plans to Load Up to 58 LNG Cargoes a Year

Peru LNG, Hunt Oil Co.’s Latin American liquefied natural gas plant, will load as many as 58 cargoes of the fuel next year, up from 24 this year, the venture’s general manager said.

The plant has loaded 20 cargoes since its first delivery in June, Barbara Bruce said in Barcelona today. More production units may come on line in four to five years, depending on gas discoveries in the area, she said.

“The expectation is more gas, and most probably a second and if possible a third train for the excess gas that we’re sure we’re going to find,” she said.

Peru LNG is running at 102 percent of its designed capacity of 4.45 million tons a year, said Graham Lawton, general manager of Compania Operadora de LNG del Peru, the plant’s operating company. Output could go to 105 percent “quite easily” and may even reach 110 percent, he said in an interview.

The company has no plans to “debottleneck” the plant to increase output and may install an expander to increase the throughput of gas, Lawton said.

Hunt Oil, a closely held U.S. oil and gas producer, has a 50 percent stake in Peru LNG and operates the plant. Repsol and SK Energy Co. of South Korea have 20 percent each and Marubeni Corp., Japan’s fifth-largest trading company, holds 10 percent.

Repsol has bought Peru LNG’s entire output, which it will market with Spain’s Gas Natural SDG SA. Hunt, Respol and SK Energy have stakes in the gas field that supplies the plant.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Farey in Barcelona at bfarey@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rob Verdonck at rverdonck@bloomberg.net