Mexico's Manzanillo LNG import terminal will come online in the fourth quarter of next year, Benjamin Palomo, managing director of LNG for Spain's Repsol, said at a conference in Barcelona Wednesday.

The terminal on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, however, won't ramp up to full capacity until 2013, Palomo said at CWC's World LNG Summit.

Repsol will deliver supplies from Peru LNG to Manzanillo. Most of Repsol's Peruvian LNG supplies now go to the Canaport terminal in eastern Canada.

After 2014, when the wider Panama Canal opens, Repsol would have a shorter trip for its 173,000 cubic meter ships to move Peruvian LNG to Canaport and other Atlantic Basin markets. Those vessels now have to make a much longer trip south around Cape Horn to reach Canaport.

The wider canal will also provide the company with a shorter route to move its Trinidad & Tobago supplies into the Pacific Basin as well as moving its Pacific Basin supplies into the Atlantic Basin.

In response to a question from the audience about taking Peruvian LNG to the low-priced US market, Palomo said: "We don't think the current situation in North American prices will last forever."

Repsol is looking at Pacific Basin markets for its Peru LNG supplies but only after it fulfills its North American supply contracts. The Asian markets, however, are not unlimited, he added in response to another question.

Asked about the potential for US exports of LNG from the Gulf of Mexico, Palomo said such exports would cost "in excess of $6/MMBtu."

"I don't think they would sell just to break even," he added.