US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will donate US$1.2 million for a feasibility study on the construction of a natural gas terminal and natural gas power plant in Manzanillo in Montecristi province on the northwest coast of the Dominican Republic. This would be a first step to interest US companies in a tender for the construction of infrastructure facilities in the northwest.
Energy and Mines Minister Antonio Isa Conde signed the donation agreement for the Dominican government and acting director of USTDA, Thomas Hardy, for USTDA during the event held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Santo Domingo.
Isa Conde stressed that competition is important in the natural gas market. US company AES Corporation operates the country’s largest natural gas infrastructure in the Andrés, Boca Chica area on the south side of the country. Isa Conde said a north coast location is of strategic convenience for security reasons in a country like ours that is on the path of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes.
Last year, the Dominican government had signed a memorandum of understanding with the People’s Republic of China for the construction of port infrastructure in Manzanillo.
A terminal in northwestern Montecristi would serve the needs of the northern part of the country that now have to transport goods for shipment from southern ports. A north terminal would be built at the country’s closest point to the United States. The United States is a major natural gas supplier to the Dominican Republic.
Read more in Spanish:
El Dia
El Caribe
23 September 2019