BOUNES AIRES: Argentina’s reduced reliance on LNG means domestically produced gas will meet around 77% of the country’s demand in 2015, according to Interfax calculations based on data from Buenos Aires-based consultancy Montamat & Asociados.
This reverses the trend seen in recent years. The share of domestic gas in Argentina’s total supply slipped by more than 10 percentage points between 2011 and 2014 as the country’s LNG imports increased by more than 43% during the same period, according to Montamat & Asociados. Argentina’s imports of piped gas from Bolivia also increased by more than 120% during the same period.
However, the country’s LNG imports may have fallen by up to 53% in Q1 2015 compared with Q1 2014, according to data supplied by Houston-based IHS Waterborne. A 50% reduction in total LNG imports, flat output and unchanged Bolivian imports would see domestically produced gas would meet more than 77% of Argentina’s demand this year, according to Interfax calculations.
Argentina’s LNG imports in the first 10 weeks of 2015 were down by 2.2 MMcm/d year on year, Luciano Codeseira, a former consultant to Argentina’s Energy Secretariat and chief of the Buenos Aires-based Codigo Energetico project, told Interfax in March. This is 37% less than the average over the period in both 2013 and 2014. Codeseira predicted 2016 imports could be up to 67% lower than 2014 levels.
