Mexico prepares to have third LNG terminal with New Fortress venture in Baja California Sur state
New Fortress Energy Inc., the New York-based LNG and power project company, has signed an agreement with a unit of the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission for the supply of regasified LNG from a new import facility within the next three months to two generating plants in the northwest state of Baja California Sur.
Under the agreement, New Fortress will provide the equivalent of an estimated 250,000-500,000 gallons of LNG (20,000-40,000 million British thermal units) per day to CFE’s CTG La Paz and CTG Baja California Sur power plants.
“We are pleased to support CFE’s transition to cleaner, more affordable and reliable energy,” said Wes Edens, Chairman and Chief Executive of New Fortress.
“This contract will help create significant fuel savings and emissions reductions for the benefit of the people of Baja California Sur,” added Edens.
The US company will supply regasified LNG to the plants to replace fuel oil via the company’s onshore receiving terminal facilities being completed in the port of Pichilingue in Baja California Sur.
The terminal is anticipated to come on line and begin the supply of natural gas to CFE in May 2021, though the company has released few details on LNG delivery and storage.
Pichilingue Port's LNG facility, located just north of La Paz, the Baja California Sur state capital, will be the third in Mexico when it enters service.
The two other Mexican LNG terminals are on the Gulf Coast at Altamira and south of Baja California on the Pacific Coast at Manzanillo.
The Pichilingue LNG facility will introduce natural gas to Baja California Sur for power generation for the first time. The state is in the lower part of the Baja California Peninsula and also currently lacks adequate onshore gas infrastructure.
New Fortress has a similar import facility in Jamaica in the Caribbean using floating storage that began operations in 2016 and another project in Puerto Rico.
The company is also working on a venture to supply regasified LNG to a 300 megawatts gas-fired power plant at Puerto Sandino in Nicaragua.
LNG cargo heads from Western Australia to Mexico as sign of continued disjointed markets
An Australian liquefied natural gas cargo is heading to an import terminal in Mexico, reflecting the unbalanced state of regional markets hobbled by high inventories and low prices.
Mexico set to cancel tender for FLNG terminal in Veracruz state as focus turns to domestic gas
Mexico is cancelling a tender for a liquefied natural gas floating storage and regasification unit originally proposed for the Port of Pajaritos to alleviate gas shortages in the southern Gulf of Mexico state of Veracruz.
State energy company Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) and its natural gas supply subsidiary, Mex Gas Supply, launched the tender in July 2018 and it attracted leading LNG FSRU sector players.
The tender was for the chartering and installation of an FSRU for an initial period of five years with regasification capacity of more than 500 million cubic feet per day.
The FSRU at Pajaritos would have required 2.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG, while an additional 2 MTPA of cargoes would have been purchased on a quarterly basis as needed.
Pemex executives haven been told by the new Chief Executive of Pemex, Octavio Romero Oropeza, that LNG imports were no longer a priority as the company’s focus switches to producing more domestic natural gas.
Domestic natural gas production in Mexico has fallen by about 42 percent from its peak of 6.52 billion cubic feet per day reached in 2009.
Pemex is aiming to double production by 2024 to 5.7 Bcf per day, driven by associated gas, as part of a plan to reduce reliance on LNG and pipeline imports.
Mexican LNG imports are received at onshore terminals located at Altamira in the Gulf of Mexico and at Manzanillo on the Pacific Coast.
A third onshore terminal at Costa Azul, also on the Pacific Coast, is owned by Sempra Energy of the US.
However, Costa Azul imports have dropped off and Sempra is planning an LNG export facility, using feed-gas from imports originated in the US.
The Pajaritos FSRU had been planned to ease gas shortages in the southeast of the country, especially on the Yucatan peninsula, where the 485-mile Mayakan pipeline supplies five Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) combined-cycle gas-fired power plants.
The CFE has pointed to the imminent start-up of new natural gas pipelines from the US, including the subsea Sur de Texas-Tuxpan line crossing the Gulf of Mexico.
The Sur de Texas-Tuxpan subsea pipeline is a joint venture between North American company TransCanada Corp. and the Sempra subsidiary Infraestructura Energetica (IEnova).
The pipeline runs from South Texas to the Mexican port of Tuxpan and is scheduled to come on line in the first quarter of 2019 with capacity of 2.6 Bcf per day.
Third US LNG export plant starts operations as Corpus Christi facility in Texas ships cargo
Cheniere Energy, said the first commissioning cargo of liquefied natural gas has loaded and departed from its US Corpus Christi liquefaction facility in Texas, marking the first export of LNG from the state and from a greenfield liquefaction facility in the lower 48 states.
LNG carrier arrives at US Corpus Christi LNG plant as the facility prepares to ship first cargo
The US Corpus Christi liquefied natural gas export plant in Texas has an LNG carrier at a mooring near the facility as it prepares to ship its first cargo and become the third large-scale LNG export facility to enter commercial production in the US.
LNG cargo deliveries
Sept 18 (LNGJ) - The 210,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex carrier “Al Kattiyah” will deliver a cargo on September 20 to the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam from the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar, according to the shipping data. The 173,400 cubic metres capacity vessel “Ribera del Duero Knutsen” will deliver a shipment on September 20 to the Mexican Manzanillo terminal on the Pacific Coast from the US Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana. The 174,900 cubic metres capacity carrier “LNG Abuja II” will deliver a cargo on September 27 to the French Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria. The 174,100 cubic metres capacity carrier “Cesi Lianyungang” will unload a shipment on September 27 at the Zhuhai terminal owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp. from the Gladstone export facility in Queensland. The 160,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Arctic Aurora” will unload a cargo on September 30 at the Mina Al-Ahmadi facility in Kuwait from the Hammerfest plant in Norway operated by Equinor. The 217,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex vessel “Al Huwaila” will deliver a Qatargas shipment on October 5 to the Chinese Qidong terminal in southeast Jiangsu province.
Korea Gas Corp. to invest in LNG bunkering and backs Daewoo Tata plan for gas-fueled truck
Korea Gas Corp., the Asian nation’s main utility and liquefied natural importer, said it would invest 1 trillion won (US$895 million) through 2025 to establish infrastructure for LNG-powered vessels and trucks.
Mexican monthly US-led pipeline gas and LNG imports increase by more than 13 percent
Mexico is continuing to import growing volumes of pipeline natural gas and LNG as monthly shipments increased by more than 13 percent from the US cross-border pipelines and in the form of cargoes from the Sabine Pass liquefaction plant in the US state of Louisiana and other LNG exporting countries such as Nigeria and Peru.
