Nicaragua’s national assembly approved a financing deal with China CAMC Engineering to support the build-out of liquid petroleum gas (LPG) infrastructure.
The credit facility is 195mn yuan (US$27mn), the legislative body said in a statement.
The government signed the agreement in December as part of a cooperation and development package with the Asian country.
The fund will allow state gas company Enigas to design, build, and put into operation three LPG storage spheres.
According to Wálmaro Gutiérrez, president of the assembly’s production, economy and budget committee, Nicaragua’s LPG storage capacity will increase to over 8mn gallons from 5mn.
Enigas was created in 2020 to replace Petrogas, part of national oil company Petronic, after the latter’s executive leadership was sanctioned by the US. In January, President Daniel Ortega appointed Luis Adrián Pichardo Chávez to head Enigas.
Latest numbers from Nicaragua’s energy and mines ministry show that LPG consumption in 2022 totaled 1.57Mb versus 1.43Mb in 2019 and 1.23Mb in 2015.
