La Paz, Mar 11 (IANS/EFE): Bolivian state-owned energy company YPFB signed a contract with Sener Ingenieria y Sistemas SA and Ros Roca Indox Cryo Energy for the design and construction of a natural gas liquefaction plant.
YPFB President Carlos Villegas, Ros Roca Vice President Salvador Roca and Sener director Luis Cavalieri inked the deal in the eastern Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.
Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia Linera and Energy Minister Juan Jose Sosa also attended the signing ceremony.
The liquefaction plant is to be built in the eastern town of Rio Grande and have the capacity to process 13 million cubic feet of natural gas and produce 200 metric tonnes of liquefied natural gas per day.
Villegas said YPFB plans to invest $137 million in the project, which will benefit 140,000 domestic users and 5,000 commercial users in 26 municipalities across Bolivia's nine regions.
"We're incorporating an important, advanced technology, because with the plant to be built in Rio Grande we're going to have the chance to embark on a natural gas liquefaction process," he said.
According to YPFB's chief, the consortium pledged that by October 2014 it will have completed construction of the liquefaction plant and the satellite regasification stations and delivered the tanker trucks for transporting the fuel to the different municipalities.
YPFB expects that output from the new plant will enable Bolivia to reduce consumption of diesel, liquefied petroleum gas and gasoline.