Golar LNG plans to fire up its oldest floating storage and regasification unit for use in a new project in Brazil.
Sources indicated to TradeWinds that the 129,000-cbm FSRU Golar Spirit (built 1981), which is laid up off Greece, is likely to be the candidate for an import project in Barcarena in the northern state of Para, where the company has secured environmental permits.
They expect the FSRU to head out to the site within the year, possibly in months.
Talk about reactivation plans for the world’s oldest LNG carrier-to-FSRU conversion has been circulating in the industry for months.
Emerging hints
More hints emerged in Golar’s first-quarter results call, when chairman Tor Olav Troim and chief executive Iain Ross detailed the model and ambitions they have for LNG projects in Brazil.
They explained that the New York-listed company plans to use the 200 million MMBtu-per-year spare capacity in its on-site FSRU newbuilding, the 170,000-cbm Golar Nanook (built 2017), which will be used as the import vehicle for Golar Power’s Sergipe power plant from its planned start-up on 1 January 2020, to access Brazil’s downstream small-scale market.
“The model we’re developing involves breaking bulk from [Golar] Nanook and transporting LNG to other coastal locations before transferring to storage tanks, secondary terminals or truck loading stations for the further transport to the destination,” Ross told investors and analysts.
“We believe this model is replicable at other locations such as Barcarena and Santa Catarina state, and importantly, it can accelerate the positioning of strategic FSRUs in those locations in advance of a power station contract being awarded.”
At one point in the call, Troim referred to "getting the [Golar] Spirit out of lay-up", and, in an accompanying webcast for Golar LNG Partners, its chief executive and chief financial officer, Brian Tienzo, spoke of the “Brazilian opportunity where Golar Spirit could be deployed”.
A leader and a team
Ross said Golar had already “hired a leader and the team” to develop this planned downstream business for Brazil, without giving details, and promised “significant updates” in the next two quarters.
The Barcarena job would see the Golar Spirit return to the country where it and a sistership — the 138,000-cbm Golar Winter (built 2004) — made their debuts as FSRUs in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Both ships were fixed to Petrobras in ground-breaking deals in 2007, with the conversion of the Golar Spirit having been started speculatively.
In 2017, Golar opted to lay up the Golar Spirit off Greece after Petrobras redelivered the unit a year early.
The Golar Winter remains on charter to Petrobras in Brazil until the third quarter of 2024.
