US LNG facility developer New Fortress Energy (NFE) plans to complete its first ‘Fast LNG’ unit in May.
The plant will be installed offshore Altamira in Mexico a month later and start to produce LNG in July.
"We're less than 100 days away from our first (Fast) LNG setting sale to its home in Altamira, Mexico," NFE CFO, Christopher Guinta, told analysts at the company’s recent fourth quarter 2022 earnings call.
NFE had said that it was developing five ‘Fast LNG’ units. Two are expected to be earmarked for offshore Altamira, one to the offshore Lakach gas field in Mexico and two offshore Louisiana.
Each unit can liquefy about 0.18 bill cu ft per day of natural gas amounting to about 1.4 mill tonnes per annum of LNG.
Analysts at independent research firm ClearView Energy Partners, told Reuters that the US Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration (MARAD), which regulates offshore LNG projects, could approve the Louisiana project as soon as September this year.
However, this assumes MARAD does not stop its review of the project again, ClearView said. MARAD had already stopped the review twice - in August and November, 2022.
Before MARAD stepped in, NFE was hoping to start producing LNG in Louisiana as soon as March, 2023, Reuters said.
