Page 10 - GLNG Week 19 2022

GLNG AMERICAS GLNG

MPL expands scope of Puerto Libertad

LNG project, targets FID in H2-2022

EXPORTS MEXICO Pacific Ltd (MPL), which is controlled Argus.
by the US investment firm AVAIO Capital, has Bairstow also stated that MPL expected to
expanded the scope of its plan to build a new begin construction work on the first phase of its
LNG export terminal at Puerto Libertad in Mex- export terminal within the next “month or so.”
ico’s Sonora State and will make a final invest- The company will take this step once it secures
ment decision (FID) on the project in the second the necessary permit for LNG exports and signs
half of 2022. binding off-take agreements for the facility’s pro-
Douglas Shanda, the CEO of MPL, told Argus duction, she said. She did not speculate as to how
Media earlier this week that the company was long this might take, but she did remark that the
now looking to build a facility capable of turning permit was expected to be issued “imminently.”
out 28.2mn tonnes per year (tpy) of LNG, twice Meanwhile, Argus reported that MPL had
as much as originally anticipated. “We increased already signed binding off-take agreements for
the anchor phase of the project,” he explained. 8mn tpy of LNG with several clients. One of
“The first three trains will be 14.1mn tonnes per these is Guangzhou Development Natural Gas
year, and we are working towards FID on the first Trading, a subsidiary of China’s Guangzhou
two trains likely in the third quarter [of 2022].” Development Group (GDG), which agreed in
Sarah Bairstow, MPL’s chief commercial April to buy 2mn tpy over a period of 20 years.
officer, said that the firm had changed direction The Puerto Libertad LNG plant will use gas
in response to the rise in global demand for LNG imported into Mexico via pipeline from fields
that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which in the US Permian basin as feedstock. As such,
has led Europe to seek new sources of natural gas Shanda pointed out, it will have a cost advan-
supplies. “We have always seen LNG demand tage over other LNG exporters targeting Asian
driven by a requirement for energy security in markets. “We have access to this great Permian
Asia, but as the supply opportunities are soaked gas, and we are the lowest landed cost of LNG
up by Europe in its new focus on energy secu- into Asia against global benchmarks,” he told
rity ... we are seeing customers being a lot more Argus.™
aggressive in terms of timing and terms,” she told

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