Excelerate Energy's LNG plant in Argentina could be completed by 2025, says executive

(Reuters) - Excelerate Energy , a U.S. company that provides storage and regasification services for LNG globally, could complete its planned gas liquefaction plant in Argentina by 2025, according to an executive.

The project, which would be Excelerate's first liquefaction plant, is planned in conjunction with Transportadora de Gas del Sur (TGS). It aims to take advantage of the resources of the vast Vaca Muerta shale formation, the world's second largest shale gas reserve.

"We believe that Argentina has high potential," Gabriela Aguilar, Excelerate's Argentine general manager and vice-president for Latin America, said during a visit to the Expedient regasification ship in Escobar, 55 kilometers (34 miles) from Buenos Aires.

"We think of it not as a pure liquefaction project, but as a project that benefits producers, so that they can have stable gas sales throughout the year," said Aguilar.

The plant was originally planned with a capacity of 4 MM cubic meters per day, but it is now being evaluated to start with a capacity of between 6 MM and 8 MM cubic meters per day, said Aguilar.

Delays in obtaining equipment could mean plant construction will take 30 months from the time an investment decision is made, said Aguilar.

Marcelo Mindlin, president of Pampa Energia, co-controller of Transportadora de Gas del Sur, said earlier this month that a final decision is expected to be made by the first quarter of 2023.

In a few years, the development of Vaca Muerta, an area the size of Belgium located in the Patagonian province of Neuquen, could help the country reverse a $5 B energy deficit and become a net energy exporter, private estimates have shown.

(Reporting by Eliana Raszewski; Writing by Steven Grattan; Editing by Anthony Esposito and Chris Reese)

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