Region: sea, gas and energy

A Canadian-Belgian consortium has a proposal, which would let power plants in the region convert to natural gas, at moderate cost.

Canada’s Pacific Rubiales, which produces gas in Colombia, will ship the gas to Central America and the Caribbean, using tankers, which belong to Belgium’s Exmar NV.

Exmar has the capacity to liquify and ship the gas.

Exmar also provides the installations, where the liquid is reconverted to gas, which can then be burned as fuel, in order to generate energy.

Exmar’s ships can carry 14,000 tonnes of liquid natural gas, and can in addition tow floating tanks, with a capacity ten times greater.

Natural gas costs almost 50% less than fuel oil, while producing only two-thirds of the amount of CO2 emissions.

For its part, an importing country would only need a floating tender, at which the tanker can dock, and from which it can offload the gas.

From the port, the gas can be transported by pipeline to a fuel-oil plant, which has been retrofitted to burn gas.

In this case, the importing country would save the capital cost of building its own dock and gasification facilities.