Acajutla LNG (IFC-34588)

Countries
  • El Salvador
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Specific Location
The port of Acajutla in the Department of Sonsonate.
Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Dec 14, 2018
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
ENERGIA DEL PACIFICO S.A. DE C.V.
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Energy
  • Infrastructure
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Guarantee, Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 565.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 525.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Aug 17, 2021

Disclosed by Bank Aug 1, 2018

Contribute Information
Can you contribute information about this project?
Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

Invenergy Clean Power El Salvador, Ltda. de C.V. (hereinafter Invenergy or ICPES) and Quantum Energy S.A. de C.V are the Sponsors of the “Acajutla LNG” project and shareholders of Energía del Pacífico Ltda. de C.V. (EDP), the project company. The project involves the construction and operation of a 378-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant at the port of Acajutla in the Department of Sonsonate in El Salvador and a marine terminal, consisting of a floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) permanently moored, for liquified natural gas (LNG) delivery, storage, and regasification, as well as a natural gas pipeline that will run from the FSRU to the power plant. The project includes the construction of a 44 km, 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line and related substations to connect the power plant to the electrical grid of El Salvador. The power plant will be located in a brownfield port and industrial area in the municipality of Acajutla, in premises secured under a 24-year lease agreement with the Executive Commission of the Port of Acajutla (CEPA), who owns and manages the port.

The power plant will consist of 19 Wärtsilä 18V50SG internal combustion reciprocating engines with capacity of 18.9 MW each, and a combined steam cycle system that will use the exhaust gases of the engines to produce additional 26 MW.  The LNG marine import terminal consist of a Restricted Catenary Mooring (RCM) system and a dedicated and chartered FSRU located approximately 1.2 km offshore.  LNG carriers will moor directly to the FSRU with flexible hoses utilized to transfer LNG. The FSRU will receive approximately six LNG shipments per year.  A combination of a flexible 3-D riser and a subsea gas pipeline will transfer the re-gasified natural gas from the FSRU to the onshore power plant.  The transmission line (T-Line) between the Electricity Transmission Company of El Salvador (ETESAL) substations of Acajutla and Ahuachapán will have approximately 139 towers and a 38-meter wide right-of-way (ROW).  The project involves the construction of a switchyard inside the project site in the port of Acajutla and the expansion of both substations.

Civil works at the plant site are scheduled to commence in the second quarter of 2019 with a project’s commercial operation day (COD) planned for July 1st, 2021.  IFC’s proposed investment will comprise of a direct loan of US$ 100 million, a US$ 40 million credit guarantee and syndication of US$ 425 million.     

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

The International Finance Corporation's proposed investment consists of a direct loan of US$ 100 million, a USD$ 40 million credit guarantee, and a US$ 425 million loan syndication with multiple lenders. 

Private Actors Description
A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

The Inter-American Development Bank detailed the private actor relationship in the following paragraphs: "The Invenergy Clean Power El Salvador, Ltda. de C.V. (“ICPES”) and Quantum Energy S.A. de C.V. (“Quantum”) are the shareholders of Energía del Pacífico Ltda. de C.V. (“EDP”), the project company. ICPES owns 85% of EDP’s shares and Quantum owns the remaining 15%. 

ICPES is 76.5% owned by wholly owned subsidiaries of Invenergy Clean Power LLC (“Invenergy”), 17.6% owned by Calleja, S.A. de C.V. and 5.9% owned by VC Energy De Centro America S.A. Founded in 2001, Invenergy develops, owns and operates power generation and energy storage facilities around the world, carrying out mainly clean energy projects (wind, solar, natural gas, cogeneration and energy storage) in North America and Europe, and more recently in Latin America.   

Quantum was founded in 2009 and is a private company incorporated in El Salvador. Quantum’s objective is to participate in public tenders in Central America through the development of projects in the energy market." 

As of the time of writing, Quantum Energy S.A. de C.V., Invenergy Clean Power El Salvador, Ltda. de C.V., Calleja S.A. de C.V. and VC Energy De Centro America S.A. do not have a presence online.    

The following firms are also involved in advising for the project:

- Sargent & Lundy Consulting (Lenders’ Engineer)

- INDECS Consulting Limited (Insurance Consultant)

- PSR-INC Energy Consulting (Market Consultant)

- Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP (New York Counsel)

- Romero Pineda Asociados (El Salvador Counsel). 

Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Calleja S.A. de C.V. Investor -
- - - - Dillon Consulting Limited Contractor -
- - - - Eco Ingenieros S.A. de C.V. Contractor -
- - - - Energía del Pacífico, Ltda de C.V. Client -
- - - - Environmental Resources Management Contractor -
- - - - Indecs Consulting Limited Contractor -
- - - - Invenergy Clean Power El Salvador, Ltda. de C.V. Investor -
- - - - Invenergy Clean Power, LLC Parent Company -
- - - - PSR Inc Contractor -
- - - - RINA Consulting Contractor -
- - - - Sargent & Lundy LLC Contractor -
- - - - VC Energy De Centro America S.A. Investor -

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works