By Graciela Ibanez
Chile's state oil and gas company, Empresa Nacional del Petroleo
SA, or Enap, and BG Group PLC (BG.LN) after several months at
loggerheads reached an agreement over prices and volumes of a
liquefied natural gas contract.
After Henry Hub prices went sharply lower, BG sought to
renegotiate the conditions on long-term contracts signed in 2007
with Enap, power generator Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA
(EOC, ENDESA.SN) and Chile's largest gas distributor, Metrogas, to
supply them with LNG.
BG will supply "bigger volumes of LNG at competitive prices,"
Enap said in a late Friday statement without providing price
details. The new contracts will start in 2013 and will last in
2030.
BG already negotiated its contract with Metrogas, which supplies
gas to some 450,000 residential and industrial clients in Santiago,
but hasn't reached a deal yet with Endesa.
BG, Enap, Endesa and Metrogas are all partners in the GNL
Quintero SA LNG regasification terminal in central Chile.
BG, however, is in the process of divesting its Chilean assets,
as the company recently sold a 20% stake in the regasification
terminal to Spanish energy company Enagas SA (ENGGY, ENG.MC). It
plans to sell its remaining 20% stake in the terminal to Enagas by
the end of the year.
Write to Graciela.Ibanez@dowjones.com
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