New Fortress Energy, the US LNG production and import projects developer, said that it finalized agreements with Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), including plans for an offshore production hub near the Gulf of Mexico import terminal at Altamira.
NFE said that its Mexican accords were fully supported by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and by Manuel Bartlett, the Chief Executive of the CFE.
The New York-based company noted that the final versions of the agreements would be signed at a ceremony on November 3 in Mexico City.
The NFE-Mexican accords cover the expansion and extensions of NFE’s supply of natural gas to multiple CFE power generation facilities in the northwest Mexican state of Baja California Sur.
IT additionally includes the selling of NFE’s 135-megawats La Paz power plant to CFE as well as the new FLNG hub off the coast of Altamira in the state of Tamaulipas.
For the LNG production hub, NFE said that the Mexican side through the CFE would be supplying the requisite feed-gas to multiple NFE FLNG units using CFE’s existing and under-utilized pipeline capacity.
Strategic alliance
“We are pleased to complete these agreements and expand our strategic alliance with CFE, which we expect to result in the delivery of our first FLNG unit by mid-2023 and enable the construction of a new LNG hub off the coast of Altamira,” explained Wes Edens, Chairman and CEO of NFE.
“I look forward to seeing President López Obrador next week, appreciate his continued support, and value the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to producing cleaner, cheaper and more reliable energy for Mexico and the world,” declared Edens.
NFE commenced commercial operations in July 2021 at an LNG regasification terminal in the port of Pichilingue in Baja California Sur.
The US company noted that the terminal, which features NFE’s proprietary “ISOFlex system”, is positioned to supply natural gas to CFE’s generation facilities in the otherwise resource-stranded region.
For the Altamira operations in the Gulf of Mexico, NFE and the CFE are fully collaborating on the creation of the new FLNG hub.
Pursuant to the now finalized agreements, NFE will deploy multiple FLNG units of 1.4 million cubic metres capacity each that utilize CFE’s existing firm pipeline transportation capacity on Sur de Texas-Tuxpan Pipeline to deliver feed-gas volumes to NFE.
The Sur de Texas-Tuxpan Pipeline is operated by Canadian company TC Energy.
NFE’s first FLNG unit, which is under construction at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard near Corpus Christi in Texas, is currently expected to achieve mechanical completion in March 2023.
“As part of the agreements, CFE would share in the production and marketing of a portion of the LNG volumes from the new Altamira offshore FLNG hub,” said NFE.
