Year: 2021
Winner: Enadom LNG
Energy costs in the Dominican Republic and the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have taken a new hit—but in the right direction.
U.S.-based AES Corporation, through its partnership with Energía Natural Dominicana (EnaDom), secured a $180 million loan in late 2020 for a new liquid natural gas (LNG) storage tank at its existing energy complex. The project will be finished in 2023.
EnaDom has saved the Dominican Republic more than $3 billion in energy costs and by 2022, natural gas will account for 70% of fuel used, reducing the coal and fuel oil footprint. This translates into an elimination of 829,000 tons per year of CO2 emissions.
The expansion not only increases EnaDom’s capacity in the Dominican Republic to contribute to a more reliable and greener energy grid, but allows the company ramp up re-exports LNG to other countries, helping the region move toward cleaner energy. The project has won Infrastructure Financing for the Caribbean.
EnaDom’s Andrés LNG terminal was commissioned in 2003, the start of a project that would expand over the years. It remains the Dominican Republic’s only LNG import terminal, offering regasification, storage, and transportation infrastructure.
The project began providing natural gas to convert existing power plants from other, more polluting, fossil fuels. In 2015, it expanded the Andrés LNG terminal to receive larger vessels and include bunkering services to provide LNG to other countries in the Caribbean. In 2020, it provide re-exports to Guyana, Jamaica and Panama.
The new LNG tank will store 120,000 cubic meters, increasing total capacity to 208,000 cubic meters and giving EnaDom a greater land and regional presence.
Canada’s Scotiabank and the Dominican Republic’s Banco Popular Dominicano were joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners on the deal.
SPONSORS:
AES Andrés B.V., Energía Natural Dominicana (EnaDom)
BANKS:
Joint Lead Arrangers, Joint Bookrunners: Scotiabank, Banco Popular Dominicano
LAW FIRM:
Shearman & Sterling, Baker Botts