HOUSTON, May 9 (Reuters) - Colombia's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports hit a record high in April and soared by 1,200% year-on-year in the first four months of 2024, data from financial firm LSEG showed on Thursday.
Last month imports of the superchilled gas reached a record 0.45 billion cubic meters (bcm) a marked difference from no import in April 2023, LSEG data showed.
The El Nino weather pattern arrived in the Andean country at the end of 2023, causing high temperatures and droughts that led to forest fires throughout the Andean country and pushed reservoirs to their lowest levels in decades.
The country relies heavily on hydropower for its electricity needs and has had to import LNG to back up its grid.
For the first four months of the year, Colombia imported 1.25 billion cubic meters (bcm) of the superchilled gas compared with 0.1 bcm for the same period last year, LSEG data showed.
In April, it imported a record 0.45 bcm of LNG. The U.S., the world's largest gas producer, supplied 60% of the cargoes and Trinidad and Tobago the other 40%, the ship tracking data showed.
Imports of LNG have continued this month, said LSEG's senior LNG analyst Olumida Ajayi, adding that the Pan Americas was currently discharging a cargo at the country’s sole terminal in Cartagena.
Experts, however, have warned Latin American nations to be on high alert as El Nino rapidly switches over to La Nina, with signs of a Nina in March, April.
Colombia, meanwhile, is working to tackle its own dwindling natural gas reserves and is even exploring the option of importing the fuel from neighboring Venezuela amid a freeze on new oil and gas licenses, to the chagrin of industry figures. (Reporting by Curtis Williams in Houston and Oliver Griffin in Colombia Editing by Marguerita Choy)
