Joint venture Golar Power has hooked up with an arm of Brazilian energy giant Petrobras to grow a business focused on providing small-scale solutions for LNG as a fuel for marine, land, power and domestic use.
The Golar company, which is a 50/50 joint venture between Golar LNG and North American investment fund Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, has paired with fuels distributor Petrobras Distribuidora (BR Distribuidora).
"The intention is to introduce LNG as an alternative to the fuels currently available to Brazil’s cargo and people transportation, industrial, thermoelectric generation, commercial and residential sectors," Golar said.
The company said the two partners believe LNG is "an innovative and potentially disruptive solution" for the transportation sector in Brazil that delivers environmental benefits and economic gains.
Golar said the new partnership coincides with the opening up of Brazil’s natural gas sector, adding that the expertise of the two partners is expected to facilitate the rapid development and penetration of small-scale LNG solutions across the country.
BR Distribuidora has a national network of more than 7,600 fuel stations along with 95 supply, operation and distribution bases.
The company was the first to commercialise ethanol and to sell compressed natural gas, Golar said, and was already evaluating opportunities to operate in the LNG distribution business in Brazil.
'Transformational'
The two companies foresee using BR Distribuidora distribution network and Golar Power's LNG terminals and ships to facilitate the roll-out of LNG supply to Brazil’s transportation and industrial sectors, particularly in regions not supplied by gas pipelines, Golar said.
BR Distribuidora also intends to replace its currently hired fleet of around 5,000 trucks with vehicles that use LNG.
Golar Power is developing Brazil's largest and soon-to-start up 1.55 GW Seripe gas-fired power plant, which will be supplied by the floating storage and regasification unit Golar Nanook (built 2017).
Last year, the company won a power auction that envisages the construction of a 605 MW power plant and LNG terminal in Para state.
Company chief executive Eduardo Antonello said the partnership with BR Distribuidora had been in the making for some time and promises to be "truly transformational".
“We believe in LNG as the only viable fuel to replace diesel, LPG and heavy fuel oil globally," Antonello said.
"The abundance of natural gas supply over the long term and the price parity in relation to diesel and LPG, make LNG a real alternative — cheaper, cleaner and more effective in transportation and industrial use."
He added: "Over the past few years, we have been working on the basic infrastructure to make a project of this scale feasible, and now we will have a robust partner that allows the penetration of a disruptive solution in a country of continental dimensions like Brazil."
Golar LNG, which boasts 27 LNG vessels, has worked in Brazil for over a decade, initially chartering in LNG carriers converted into FSRUs to Petrobras.
