LIMA, June 11 (UPI) -- Spanish energy company Repsol announced the inauguration of its first gas liquefaction plant in Peru, its largest investment ever in the South American country.
Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau inaugurated the liquefied natural gas project in Pampas Melchorita, about 100 miles south of Lima. The plant comes from a $3.8 billion investment, the largest ever for Peru.
The plant's two storage tanks can each hold 4.5 million cubic feet of LNG. The plant itself can process as much as 620 million cubic feet of gas each year.
Natural gas for the plant comes from the Camisea gas field. The field, discovered in 1986, holds an estimated 11 trillion cubic feet of gas. A 250-mile pipeline delivers gas to the plant from the Camisea gas field.
Amazon Watch, a U.S. rainforest activist group, said the Camisea gas project is "arguably the most damaging project in the Amazon Basin" because of the impact on the ecosystem and indigenous people.
The group complains on its Web site that there were three major spills from a pipeline linked to the Camisea project since operations began in August 2004.
Repsol has the exclusive rights to market the gas under an 18-year deal.
