Extended winter could force Colombia to import gas

Colombia may need to import natural gas during a harsh rainy season, the country's minister of mines and energy regulator have announced.

Minister Mauricio Cardenas Santamaria and German Castor, director of the Commission for the Regulation of Energy and Gas (CREG), said an extended winter could force Colombia a natural gas producer to examine options for importing gas.

Castor said the CREG is ready to study the possibilities, in comments to the senate's sixth committee on rtuesday.

In December an executive with the Colombian power company Colinversiones argued the country needed liquid natural gas import facilities in the next four years to "give security in moment of peak electricity demand."

The article in Business News America reported Creg was devising regulation for future import facilities and Coliversiones was contributing to those efforts.

In the senate meeting Santamaria denied that winter weather was contributing to recent gas price hikes across the country.

Prices have risen 20 to 25%, and up to 40% in the region around the city of Manizales, south of Medellin.

Superintendent of Public Services Cesar Gonzalez blamed the discrepancy on varying formulas for calculating gas prices in different parts of the country.