LNG

Argentine state energy company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF), which has various LNG development and shale gas and oil projects, gave an overview in its latest earnings on the partial recovery from the pandemic of the South American energy market.

TotalEnergies has approved the final investment decision for the Fénix gas development offshore LNG importer Argentina in partnership with Germany’s main oil and gas company Wintershall Dea.

Excelerate Energy, the US pioneer of floating liquefied natural gas import terminals, said the FSRU “Exemplar” has returned to the Argentine port of Bahia Blanca to support the South American nation’s peak energy demand in the Southern Hemisphere winter.

“The ‘Exemplar’ has begun operations in Bahia Blanca, a port city located 400 miles south of the Argentine capital Buenos Aires,” said Excelerate.

The FSRU has storage capacity of 150,900 cubic metres and deliver regasified LNG for the 2021 winter season in Argentina, providing reliability and stability in the challenging conditions of the South Atlantic.

The vessel has been chartered for use by Integración Energética Sociedad Anónima (IEASA), previously known as Enarsa (Energía Argentina S.A.), a state-owned company and the national oil and gas company, and Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) S.A. to deliver an energy solution

“We are excited to return to Bahia Blanca and continue our partnership with IEASA and YPF to deliver an energy solution that is flexible, cost-effective, and environmentally-friendly during a critical period of peak demand,” said Daniel Bustos, Excelerate’s Chief Commercial Officer.

“We are confident the ‘Exemplar’ can perform again with our local Argentine crew to support the country’s energy transition and post-Covid economic recovery this winter,” added Bustos.

The return of the FSRU comes after Excelerate recently won an international, competitive tender for seasonal regasification service in Bahia Blanca.

Excelerate developed the Bahia Blanca GasPort, South America’s first LNG import terminal in 2008 and has also operated GNL Escobar, an LNG import terminal along the Paraná River, since 2011.

The Excelerate company has started FSRU-led import ventures in the US, South America, Asia and the Middle East and has its headquarters in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas.

It is part of a privately held US energy group founded by American businessman George Kaiser, who is also the majority shareholder of the publicly-traded Bank of Oklahoma. 

A US government report outlines a rise in Argentina’s domestic natural gas production noted over the past three years, largely because of increasing production from the Neuquén Basin’s Vaca Muerta Shale and tight-gas play, while the nation has also started LNG exports.

“As production has grown, Argentina has resumed exporting natural gas by pipeline to neighboring Chile and Brazil and has started exporting liquefied natural gas,” said the report from the US Energy Information Administration.

Production from Vaca Muerta Shale surpassed 1.0 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in December 2018 and Argentina’s first LNG export cargo was shipped on June 6 from the offshore Tango floating liquefaction unit, according to the report.

“The growth in Argentina’s shale and tight gas production has partially offset declines in its natural gas production from mature fields,” said the EIA.

However, output from Vaca Muerta now accounts for about 23 percent of Argentina’s total gross natural gas production.

“The Vaca Muerta shale formation has technically recoverable resources of 308 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 16 billion barrels of oil and condensate within 8.6 million acres, and it is geologically comparable to the Eagle Ford shale play in southern Texas,” stated the EIA.

“Only 4 percent of Vaca Muerta’s acreage has entered the development phase so far,” the report added.

“Argentina’s domestic natural gas production exceeds consumption during warmer months, from October through April, though production is insufficient to meet demand during colder months, May through September, which requires Argentina to import natural gas by both pipeline and as LNG,” explained the EIA.

“Because Argentina doesn’t have geologically suitable formations to serve as large-scale natural gas storage facilities, natural gas producers have to shut in surplus production to accommodate seasonal consumption patterns,” said the report.

“Argentina is conducting feasibility studies to identify potential natural gas storage sites,” it added.

From 1990 through 2007, Argentina was a net exporter of natural gas. Since then, Argentina has been importing more natural gas both by pipeline (mainly from Bolivia) and as LNG.

Argentina imports LNG using a floating storage and regasification vessel (FSRU) moored at the Escobar port near Buenos Aires.

In the last two years, with the growth in domestic production, Argentina has been importing LNG only during cooler months, March through October.

“Argentina will likely continue importing LNG during cooler months until additional pipeline infrastructure is built to deliver growing shale production to major demand centers,” said the US report.

“Argentina’s seasonal demand patterns, the opposite of countries in the Northern Hemisphere, allows Argentina to export LNG during months when major consuming countries in Asia are importing more LNG,” it added.

Natural gas from Vaca Muerta is transported by an existing pipeline network to the port of Bahía Blanca, where it is liquefied at Tango FLNG, a floating production barge chartered from Belgian shipping company Exmar.

“These pipelines were previously used to transport imported LNG from an FSRU moored offshore at Bahía Blanca,” said the EIA.

“Tango FLNG has an LNG production capacity of 500,000 metric tons (0.07 Bcf/d) and is expected to produce up to eight LNG-export cargoes per year,” it added.

“Future growth in LNG exports will require additional investments in onshore liquefaction facilities and pipeline infrastructure or the use of additional floating LNG-production vessels,” stated the US report.