Page 6 - LatAmOil Week 28 2021

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NFE launches LNG import

terminal in Pichilingue

US-BASED New Fortress Energy (NFE) has cleaner-burning natural gas is a significant mile-
brought a new LNG import terminal on stream stone for Baja California Sur,” he commented.
in Pichilingue, a port at the southern tip of Baja “Our facility will enable customers to signifi-
California Sur State. cantly reduce emissions and costs by switching
NFE announced the launch on July 14, from oil-based fuels to natural gas.”
reporting that its new receiving and regasifi- For his part, Sam Abdalla, NFE’s vice-pres-
cation facility had officially begun commercial ident of project development, pointed out that
operations and saying it intended to mark the the terminal would be able to deliver gas to local
occasion at a ceremony on July 16. It also indi- consumers quickly and efficiently. The facility
cated that it expected the terminal to begin has been outfitted with the company’s propri-
delivering LNG to customers in the near future, etary ISOFlex system, which gives tankers the
in line with its existing supply agreements. option of using a specialised manifold to trans-
The first parties to receive the fuel will be fer their LNG cargoes to ISO storage containers
CTG La Paz and CTG Baja California, two ther- mounted on offshore support vessels (OSVs), he
mal power plants (TPPs) owned by CFEnergia noted. In turn, the OSVs are capable of off-load-
SA de CV. NFE signed a supply deal with the ing the containers onto trucks or at container
utility, which is a subsidiary of Mexico’s Federal port facilities, thereby reducing the time, capital
Electricity Commission (CFE), in March 2021. cost and permitting requirements of LNG deliv-
The company also expects to begin delivering eries, he said.
gas to its own TPP before the end of September, “We are proud to have deployed the first-
the statement said. It noted that NFE has nearly of-a-kind ISOFlex system at our terminal in
finished building the 135-MW facility, which is Baja California Sur,” Abdalla said. “This is a
close to the terminal in Pichilingue, and will use big achievement for NFE and will enable us
it to supply electricity to the local grid. to deliver critical energy infrastructure and
Additionally, it said, NFE aims to carry out its logistics solutions much more quickly and less
first deliveries of LNG to industrial customers expensively.”
within the next two months. According to previous reports, NFE will use
Wes Edens, the chairman and CEO of the the system to load LNG onto trucks for delivery
company, noted that the new facility would allow to local hotels and industrial consumers.
Baja California Sur to access natural gas for the
first time. This will benefit the state’s economy Supply deals
and environment by facilitating the switch to a The company launched the Pichilingue terminal
fuel that is cleaner-burning, more efficient and shortly after revealing that it had arranged to buy
more cost-effective than petroleum products, he enough LNG to supply the needs of its terminals
was quoted as saying in a press release. in Latin America and the Caribbean for the next
“The delivery of more affordable and six years.

The new terminal will use OSVs to transfer LNG to containers (Photo: New Fortress Energy)

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