Page 10 - GLNG Week 19 2021

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG

Invenergy, BW LNG complete FSRU financing

INVESTMENT INVENERGY and BW LNG announced this (SIEPAC), and the companies said this would
week that they had completed the financing of a strengthen the region’s electric grid.
floating, storage and regasification unit (FSRU) The EDP project is due to be completed in
for the Energía del Pacífico (EDP) LNG-to- 2022, and is expected to meet 30% of El Salva-
power project in El Salvador. dor’s energy demand through power purchase
The two companies closed the $128.3mn agreements (PPAs) with seven of the country’s
financial package for the unit with IDB Invest. distribution companies.
The package has a 15-year contractual term Invenergy and BW LNG have talked up the
granted to FSRU Ltda. de CV in El Salvador. project’s environmental benefits, saying EDP’s
The funding will be used for the purchase use of natural gas would reduce El Salvador’s
and conversion of the BW Tatiana LNG car- reliance on imported diesel and heavy fuel oil-
rier to an FSRU. The vessel will be permanently fired generation.
moored at the Port of Acajutla in Sonsonate, “The close of financing for the FSRU repre-
and will be jointly operated by Invenergy and sents a significant step forward in the completion
BW LNG. of the transformational EDP project, the founda-
The facility will be Central America’s first tion for El Salvador’s clean energy future,” stated
FSRU. It will have a regasification capacity of Invenergy’s senior vice-president, finance and
280mn cubic feet (7.9mn cubic metres) per day capital markets, Meghan Schultz.
and an LNG storage capacity of 137,000 cubic “Besides enhancing this project’s competi-
metres. tiveness, we hope this financing encourages the
The LNG received by the vessel will be regas- development of many more LNG-to-power pro-
ified and transported via subsea pipeline to jects in the region,” added BW Group’s vice-pres-
the onshore 378-MW gas-fired power plant. A ident of group treasury and corporate finance,
44-km, 230-kV electric transmission line will Jessica Cheung.
connect the power plant’s output to the Central EDP has signed a long-term LNG supply
American Electrical Interconnection System agreement with Royal Dutch Shell.™

Sempra likely to push Port

Arthur LNG FID back to 2022

PROJECTS & SEMPRA Energy said last week that it would stake in the facility. Aramco had also agreed
COMPANIES likely delay the final investment decision (FID) on a preliminary basis to buy LNG from the
on its proposed Port Arthur LNG export termi- project over a 20-year period. However, the
nal in Texas to 2022. pandemic has resulted in the Middle Eastern
If this happens, it would be the second delay company reconsidering some of its investment
after Sempra initially pushed back the FID plans.
from 2020 to 2021 as a result of market uncer- Meanwhile, Sempra continues construction
tainty caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) on its Energía Costa Azul (ECA) LNG project in
pandemic. Mexico, which was the only LNG export project
The continuing impacts of the pandemic to reach FID in 2020. In the company’s earnings
were cited again this time around, with Sempra call, Sempra’s chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Mar-
also saying that it was working with partners tin, remarked that ECA LNG Phase 1 was “going
and customers to reduce Port Arthur’s green- very well”, with some of the site preparation work
house gas (GHG) emissions profile and enhance having started last month.
its competitiveness in the context of the energy Additionally, Martin talked up progress being
transition. As a result of this work and the pan- made towards a planned expansion of the Cam-
demic, it is “more likely” that the FID will come eron LNG export terminal in Louisiana. He said
next year, Sempra’s executive vice-president and the partners in the project were working through
chief financial officer, Trevor Mihalik, said dur- the funding of the pre-front-end engineering
ing the company’s earnings call. and design (pre-FEED) work, with this expected
The first phase of Port Arthur LNG would to help advance and optimise the overall techni-
have a capacity of 13.5mn tonnes per year (tpy) cal design of Cameron Phase 2.
from two liquefaction trains. In a setback for Sempra is also making “great progress” on
the project, it was reported in September 2020 commercial discussions with Mitsui, Mitsubishi
that state-owned Saudi Aramco was reviewing and Total – who are also partners in Cameron –
its earlier preliminary decision to buy a 25% according to Martin.™

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