On Monday, President Michelle Bachelet of Chile launched a project billed as the solution to Chile's energy crisis to construct a new liquid natural gas terminal in the north of the country.

Chile is rich in copper, but so far produces virtually no oil and little natural gas.

The joint venture between the French utility Suez and Chile's copper company Codelco hopes to address the country's over-reliance on Argentinian gas supplies.

Chile imports nearly 80% of its natural gas from its neighbour.

But in recent winters Argentina has suspended all natural gas exports to Chile, because of the cold weather.

Argentina also recently started raising taxes on its energy exports to help shore up its own supplies.

"With this plant, on the one hand, we'll be able to confront the problems of receiving gas from Argentina, and on the other, reduce production costs for electric energy, which will result in better competitive conditions," said Marcelo Tokma, Chile's energy minister.

Around 500 million US dollars of investments are being poured into the first phase of the project to build a jetty for tankers.

The second phase involves the construction of an onshore gassification terminal.

Leading European utilities are peddling liquid natural gas as the future of energy supply.

"I'm sure that this liquid natural gas complex will help us a lot. We need this energy, but we need clean energy in Chile and throughout the planet," said Bachelet.

Suez is also considering building several new power plants in Chile over the next decade to capitalise on the country's growing power demands.