KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 2, CMC – Government has given the green light for the establishment of the Jamaica Gas Trust (JGT) tasked with executing major agreements under the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project.

The Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining said that the JGT will be capitalized and managed by private sector interests.

“Approval has been given for the engagement of a placement agent, which will be tasked with securing US$100 million in cash investments from private investors. This is in addition to a similar amount of credit support required from the End-Users of the imported LNG,” the Ministry said.

It said that three bids from Belgium, Spain and Korea, had been received for the construction of the LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Terminal at the close of submissions on April 27.

These submissions will now be evaluated with Cabinet expected to approve a preferred bidder by the end of June.

The government said that these developments constitute key milestones in the ongoing development of the Jamaica LNG Project, which to date has received six submissions for the long-term supply of LNG from the first stage of the bid process, which ended in November 2011.

“The introduction of LNG is a fundamental element of the government’s strategy to diversify its energy mix to meet the growing needs of the power generation and bauxite/alumina industries,” the Ministry said, noting that the initial demand for LNG is approximately 0.8 million tonnes per year, with future demand projected at 2.5 million tonnes annually by the end of the decade.

“It is expected that the importation of LNG will serve to spur economic growth in industries across the island that would benefit from the availability of natural gas and lower energy prices,” the statement added.