Page 9 - GLNG Week 12 2023

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG

Excelerate’s Excelsior FSRU will

interrupt German charter for

seasonal service in Argentina

ARGENTINA EXCELERATE Energy has confirmed that its be suspended temporarily while the FSRU is
floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) deployed to Bahia Blanca. After Argentina’s
Excelerate Energy Excelsior will serve as an LNG import facility winter season, the Excelsior will resume its
has confirmed that its on a seasonal basis at the Bahia Blanca terminal original charter with the German government.
FSRU Excelsior will in Argentina before heading to Germany later As of press time, the terms of the contract
suspend its German this year to start a five-year contract. had not been made public.
charter to serve as an In its 2022 result report, which was pub- According to automatic identification sys-
LNG import facility on lished on March 27, the US-based company tem (AIS) data, the Excelsior was sailing off-
a seasonal basis at the explained that it had signed a five-year charter shore Cadiz, Spain, as of March 28.
Bahia Blanca terminal agreement for the 138,000-cubic metre ves- Excelerate will have two of the FSRUs in its
in Argentina. sel in October of last year. Under that agree- 10-unit fleet deployed in Europe this year. The
ment, it said, the Excelsior is slated to serve second vessel is a 150,900-cubic metre ship
as the second FSRU-based facility that E.ON known as the Exemplar. It is currently anchored
of Germany, Tree Energy Solutions (TES) of at the Inkoo terminal in Finland under a char-
Belgium and Engie of France are developing in ter with the state-owned natural gas transmis-
Wilhelmshaven. sion grid operator, Gasgrid.
The charter hire for the FSRU began in Feb- Argentina is a gas producer, but it relies on
ruary this year. However, the vessel will tempo- imports – LNG cargoes delivered by sea, as well
rarily provide seasonal regasification service at as overland pipeline shipments from Bolivia –
the Bahia Blanca GasPort terminal in Argen- to cover domestic demand. In the long term, it
tina before returning to Germany in the third has aspirations of becoming a net exporter. This
quarter of 2023. goal hinges on attracting more investment to
Excelerate won a seasonal charter contract the Vaca Muerta shale formation, which con-
this month to deliver regasified LNG during the tains large amounts of unconventional gas, and
winter season, which runs from June to August, to the infrastructure projects needed to connect
in Argentina. As such, the German charter will upstream assets to the South Atlantic coast. ™

Week 13 30•March•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P9