Page 6 - GLNG Week 50 2021

GLNG COMMENTARY GLNG

LNG sector gaining

momentum in Brazil

Excelerate begins deliveries to the Bahia LNG

terminal amid record Brazilian gas imports, NFE’s

signing of Alunorte deal

PERFORMANCE EXCELERATE Energy announced on Decem- Petrobras confirmed that it had transferred
ber 8 that it had begun receiving gas deliveries at control of the Bahia LNG terminal to the US
WHAT: Brazil’s Bahia LNG import terminal in Salvador, company. In a statement, the NOC said it had
Excelerate has begun a port in Bahia State. taken this step after securing approval from the
delivering gas to Brazil The company took control of the Bahia ter- Administrative Council for Economic Defence
via the Bahia LNG minal last week after signing a lease agreement (CADE), the anti-trust division of the Brazilian
terminal. in September. It is not a newcomer to the South Justice Ministry.
American country, as it has been providing Petrobras has been trying for some time
WHY: regasification services at Brazilian facilities since to lease the Bahia facility out to a third party.
The South American state 2012, but it will now become the first private However, none of the nine companies that were
needs the additional gas company to sell regasified LNG to local custom- invited to submit bids made valid offers, and the
import capacity. ers. In a statement, Excelerate said it anticipates NOC opted earlier this year to stage another
selling gas to a “diverse portfolio” of customers bidding contest. In February, it said it would
WHAT NEXT: in this newly opened market. only accept offers from the same nine compa-
Drought, market reforms Excelerate’s floating storage and regasification nies that had already been pre-qualified to bid
and decarbonisation will unit (FSRU), the Excelerate Sequoia, is provid- for the lease as of late 2019.
keep demand for LNG ing regasification services at Bahia. The FSRU According to previous reports, the pre-qual-
high in the long term. has a storage capacity of 173,400 cubic metres, ification list included nine companies. Three of
while the Bahia terminal has a regasification them were domestic firms – namely, Compass
capacity of up to 700mn cubic feet (19.8mn Gas and Energy, a new Brazilian gas transport
cubic metres) per day. and distribution company set up by the Cosan
The operations at Bahia are the latest example industrial group, and two Brazilian gas distribu-
of the Excelerate Flexible Integrated Terminal tors, Bahiagas and Naturgy. Four were vertically
(E-FIT) offering, which the company has also integrated international oil companies (IOCs)
deployed at the Moheshkhali floating LNG – BP (UK), Repsol (Spain), Royal Dutch Shell
(FLNG) terminal in Bangladesh. (UK/Netherlands) and Total (France). The
other two were international firms that special-
Resolving Bahia LNG’s fate ise in LNG – Bermuda-registered Golar LNG
Excelerate made its announcement just a few and Excelerate.
days after Brazil’s national oil company (NOC) As the eventual winner of the tender,

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 50 17•December•2021