LNG

New Fortress Energy, the US LNG and power company that owns and operates facilities in five countries, has extended the schedules for first LNG at the floating liquefaction plant offshore Altamira in the Gulf of Mexico and the first cargo will now be shipped in July rather than June.

Wes Edens, Chairman and Chief Executive of New York-based NFE, had previously said that the first cargo from the FLNG facility was expected in June.

The FLNG production facility is located in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico offshore the port of Altamira where there is already an onshore LNG import terminal.

“The company has made tremendous progress on its path towards the start of liquefaction operations,” said a statement from New Fortress, which is listed on the Nasdaq global exchange

“As of June 14, the work necessary to begin operations is complete and the company has also completed the full remainder of pre-commissioning activities,” explained NFE.

Revisions

“The company now expects to produce LNG in the next 10 days, and then expects to be able to deliver its first cargo in July,” the company added.

The FLNG facility has also received a positive ruling from the US Customs and Border Protection agency confirming that the transportation of LNG produced at NFE’s FLNG unit can transport cargoes on non-US Jones Act qualified vessels.

As a result of this ruling, NFE will be able to sell and deliver LNG produced at its FLNG facility offshore Mexico to US locations, including the territory of Puerto Rico.

The progress on FLNG in the Gulf of Mexico comes amid advances in import and power projects in the South American nation of Brazil.

NFE has now commenced operations in Brazil at both of its LNG import terminals and has 2.2 gigawatts of power plants under construction.

One of the NFE Brazilian terminals is located at Barcarena in the northeast state of Pará.

The second is at Santa Catarina, located in the state of the same name in the far south of Brazil.

NFE noted that along with the existing 630 megawatt power plant and a 25-year agreement, the Barcarena terminal would supply LNG to power capacity owned by NFE.

New Fortress Energy, the US integrated LNG and power company that owns, operates or provides natural gas to 30 facilities in five countries, has signed an engineering contract to build a gas-fired power plant adjacent to its Barcarena LNG import terminal in Pará, the northeast Brazilian state.

Nimofast Brasil SA has signed a partnership agreement with the Norwegian company Kanfer Shipping AS to offer small and medium-scale LNG shipping, small-scale floating storage units (FSUs) and LNG bunkering to its customers in Brazil from 2025.

“The LNG vessels and LNG bunker ships will be loaded via the permanently based FSU at the Nimofast LNG import and distribution terminal in the state of Paraná,” said Kanfer.

Kanfer is one of the leading companies for small-scale LNG and gas solutions based in Norway.

Kanfer explained that its aim was to help stranded customers in emerging markets to efficiently access LNG through transport and storage and to provide clean and cost-effective bunkering infrastructure.

“We are very much looking forward to cooperating with Nimofast by using our patented technologies to improve both the availability and accessibility of LNG for the customers in Brazil as well as being cost efficient,” said Stig Hagen, Chief Executive of Kanfer.

LNG gap

“Kanfer’s small-scale solutions for sea transport, storage and bunkering create a virtual LNG pipeline, solving a critical gap in the LNG supply chain,” stated Hagen.

Nimofast is an LNG project development company with its roots in trading and is fully licensed and authorized by the Brazilian regulator, the National Agency of Petroleum (ANP), to import LNG to Brazil.

Nimofast recently announced that it secured enough LNG offtake volumes to justify a final investment decision via supply contracts with GNLink, a company controlled by asset manager Lorinvest, and with energy trading company Migratio Gas.

The terminal is expected to be operational in 2025.

“We noticed that many clients in Brazil, either require relatively small volumes of LNG, or do not have suitable port infrastructure to build or to justify their own LNG import terminal,” explained Nimofast President Ramon Reis.

Port drafts

“Via the partnership with Kanfer Shipping, we are able to offer and deliver LNG to any customer along the Brazilian coastline regardless of the requested volumes or port draft limitations,” he added.

“We also see LNG bunkering as a growth market to meet environmental and economic objectives in shipping,” stated Reis.

The third party in the venture is Maius GmbH, a Swiss structuring and project finance firm which is advising Nimofast on the structuring of its debt and equity, strategic partnerships and risk mitigation of the project.

“We congratulate Nimofast and the partners on achieving another important milestone that will contribute to the energy transition and security in Brazil,” said Stefan M. Rohmer, the Maius CEO.

“We are proud to be part of the team and to be the lead adviser for this privately-funded, market-leading project,” declared Rohmer.

New Fortress Energy Inc, the New York-based company with expanding assets after two LNG acquisitions for shipping and Brazilian gas-to-power projects, posted a first-quarter loss as it pursues additional plans for floating LNG and natural gas production.

Petroleo Brasileiro, the state energy company of Brazil, said it had successfully concluded tests to allow a 50 percent capacity increase at its re-started floating liquefied natural gas import terminal at Guanabara Bay in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

Golar LNG Chairman Olav Troim apologized to shareholders about the recent earnings disappointments and expressed confidence about strategy and the key role of natural gas in the energy mix for many years to come, leading to a rise in the two Golar shares listed on the Nasdaq global exchange, one by more than 5 percent.