Energy and Mines Minister Pedro Sanchez said Friday that exports of liquified natural gas won't leave Peru's domestic market undersupplied.

"We have an enormous amount of room to meet export requirements," Sanchez said on RPP radio.

This week civil and political groups organized widespread protests in southern Peru demanding that planned gas exports be stopped, and that gas from the Camisea fields be shipped to their region before exports start.

Late Thursday, David Lemor, an official with the private sector consortium known as Peru LNG, which will ship the LNG, said in a television interview the first natural gas consignment should leave in the next few days, bound for Spain.

Peru LNG has a contract to receive 4.2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas over the next 18 years from the Camisea fields in southern Peru.

The consortium comprises Hunt Oil Co., SK Energy Co. (096770.SE), Repsol YPF SA (REP, REP.MC) and Marubeni Corp. (MARUY).

Repsol Comercializadora de Gas SA has a contract to export the LNG. It has a long-term contract to ship LNG to Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission, although the regasification plant there isn't ready yet.

Lemor was quoted as saying gas exports to Mexico would start at the end of 2011. He also said exporting gas was the best way of attracting exploration and developing gas reserves.

-By Sophie Kevany, Dow Jones Newswires; 51-198-903-8043; sophie.kevany@dowjones.com
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