Page 12 - LatAmOil Week 23 2021

LatAmOil ARGENTINA LatAmOil

The Exemplar FSRU is now operating in Bahía Blanca GasPort (Image: Excelerate Energy)

Argentina brings Excelerate FSRU on line

EXCELERATE Energy announced last week to be delivered to Bahia Blanca, in addition to
that its Exemplar floating storage and regasifica- the 24 that had been contracted in March for
tion unit (FSRU) had started operations offshore delivery to Escobar.
the Argentine port of Bahia Blanca. This brings This comes as demand grows while domestic
Argentina’s LNG import facilities to two, with gas production continues to lag levels seen prior
a smaller Excelerate FSRU having already been to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The
stationed at Escobar since 2011. country’s gas output averaged 114mn cubic
The Exemplar has a storage capacity of metres per day in April this year, down from a
150,900 cubic metres, and has previously oper- peak of 144 mcm per day in August 2019.
ated offshore Argentina. It has been leased for Texas-based Excelerate developed the Bahia
the 2021 Southern Hemisphere winter season – Blanca GasPort – South America’s first LNG
from late May until August – to help the country import terminal – in 2008. The terminal had
meet demand for natural gas, which is typically been idle since 2018, as Argentina focused on
higher at this time of year. tapping its Vaca Muerta shale formation, both
Media reported this week that the facility had to supply gas to the domestic market and to
already received its first cargo. drive exports. However, production has not met
Last winter, Argentina’s Integración expectations, owing to a combination of factors
Energética Argentina (Ieasa) – the country’s including Argentina’s economy, a poor com-
buyer of natural gas – purchased 28 LNG car- modity price environment and – most recently
goes to meet winter demand, and this year the – the pandemic.
number is predicted to rise to at least 37. Ieasa Excelerate won a tender to reactivate the ter-
recently launched a tender for 13 LNG cargoes minal in April 2021. ™

PERU
Leftist candidate appears to take

the lead in presidential-run-off

PERUVIAN voters went to the polls on June 6 and gas industry.
to cast ballots in the second round of the presi- As of press time, neither of the candidates
dential election, the outcome of which is likely participating in the run-off had officially been
to have a significant impact on the country’s oil declared the winner.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 23 10•June•2021