Ecuador’s approval of LNG imports pushes Sycar project forward

U.S. project development company Sycar, along with other private companies, has received authorisation from the Government of Ecuador to import industrial gas, gasoline, natural gas, diesel, jet fuel, avgas, absorbents, and other derivatives.

Sycar said last week that the authorisation, received on 24 September 2020, for importing was for liquids and derivatives destined to nine economic sectors.

Some of the sectors are industrial, commercial, shipping, and aviation. The Government decree establishes 120 days for the Ecuadorian Institute for Standardization (INEN) to update the standard for the commercialisation of hydrocarbons in the country.

Sycar added that the approval was good news for the company’s construction of the first LNG import terminal in Ecuador which, according to the company, was still on schedule.

The project will include a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU). The FSRU will supply regasified LNG to an existing power plant as well as deliver volumes to an LNG truck filling station.

This project is intended to introduce natural gas to the Ecuadorian energy matrix as a Phase 1 for a future onshore LNG storage terminal.

The project is being developed for Bajo Alto in El Oro Province near the existing Thermo Gas Machala power plant. It was awarded a concession from the Undersecretary of Ports as well as the FSRU operation approval from the Secretary for the Regulation and Control of Hydrocarbons in Ecuador back in June.

Sycar expects to reach financial closure on the project in early 2021 and teamed up with an LNG trading company in late July to develop the project. It plans to kick-start construction in 2022 with first gas flows to start later that year. Once set up, the project will have an initial regasification capacity of 50 million standard cubic feet per day.

The company added in last week’s statement that the Ministry of the Environment issued a note of observations for the project´s Environmental Impact Study, which will be fully answered on the week of 28 October presenting also Sycar’s definitive Environmental Impact Study.

“With this release from the government to import fuels, once the environmental license is received, the terminal construction work can start, advancing on our goal of importing LNG and supplying natural gas to the Ecuadorian industry safely and efficiently.

“Our vision is that natural gas will play a very important role in Ecuador’s energy matrix and will promote an agenda of quality and competitiveness in the industry”, Sycar stated.