Oil convention will gather in Panama companies from the US, China and Saudi Arabia
Posted on 2018-08-20
Companies from China, the United States and Saudi Arabia will participate from October 25th in the First Convention and Exhibition of Gas and Oil of Panama (Petropan 2018), in which the Central American country will try to position itself as a "hydrocarbon hub" .
"We are not an oil country, we are a canal country (through the Panama Canal), but that does not stop us from becoming a hydrocarbon hub and an oil power, Singapour and the Dutch city of Rotterdam are our greatest examples", Leonor Gómez, the organizer of the conference, explained to Efe.
The executive said that Panama has the largest merchant marine in the world and is also one of the most important logistics platforms, thanks to the interoceanic canal, which links more than 140 maritime routes and 1,700 ports in 160 different countries and through which it passes near the 6 percent of world trade.
The expansion of the canal, which has been in operation since June 2016, has allowed large vessels such as gas carriers that transport liquefied natural gas (LNG) to cross the interoceanic route, since previously they did not fit through the old locks.
Gomez recalled that the Central American country inaugurated last week the first LNG-based power generation plant and the first reception terminal for that hydrocarbon in Central America.
The plant, located in the Caribbean city of Colón and with 381 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, will begin to distribute gas in the region, expected from September 2019.
The oil meeting, which will be attended by nearly 3,000 attendees from around the world, will take place between October 25 and 28 at the convention center of the Panamanian capital.
Among those attending the event, added the organizer, are representatives of the world's most important oil and energy companies, such as the American AES or the Mexican Pemex.
The Minister of Hydrocarbons of Ecuador, Carlos Pérez García, and the president of Libya's national oil company, Mustafa Sanalla, among other public figures have also confirmed their attendance.
Although Panama is not an oil producing country, in 2011 a geological study determined that fossil fuel exists in the provinces of Bocas del Toro (west) and Darién (east), as well as in the central region of Azuero and on the coast of Panamanian Caribbean (north).
Source: Efe
