Karpowership and Mitsui OSK Line joint venture KARMOL is holding discussions on deploying a floating storage and regasification unit to work in combination with a powership at Nacala in northern Mozambique.
Karpowership chief commercial officer Zeynep Harezi told TradeWinds: “We will discuss with the Mozambique authorities to better meet their needs,” explaining that the country’s power off-take obligations would increase as it switches to gas.
She said the demand profiles of many countries have been changed by the pandemic.
Work is underway on the LNG carrier-to-FSRU conversion of the 127,452-cbm KARMOL LNGT Powership Asia (ex-Northwest Shearwater, built 1991), which is earmarked for Mozambique.
Harezi said the vessel will probably be ready to leave Singapore in the third or fourth quarter.
KARMOL’s first FSRU — the 125,000-cbm KARMOL LNGT Powership Africa (ex-Dwiputra, built 1994) — arrived off Senegal in West Africa last week in preparation for hook-up to Karpowership’s 235-MW Karadeniz Powership Aysegul Sultan.
No showstopper
Harezi said an LNG cargo would be delivered to the FSRU in July.
Karpowership is switching its entire fleet to run on gas.
KARMOL has acquired another LNG carrier — the 127,000-cbm LNG Vesta (built 1994) — for conversion to an FSRU.
Harezi said there are “multiple customers” for this FSRU, and KARMOL is trying to ensure that the unit fits all of them. Whichever party closes the deal first will get the unit, she added.
In March, Karpowership was named as the selected party to provide three FSRU-powerships for South Africa, but the process has become the subject of legal proceedings after claims made by DNG Energy.
Harezi said: “Unfortunately, one of the sour losers said the process was not transparent from the beginning.”
She countered that the process was “extremely transparent”, with third-party international consultants vetting all bids.
Harezi said the court proceedings are running their course in parallel with a planned July closing date: “We don’t think it’s a showstopper.”
Karpowership is looking at “multiple projects” in West Africa, she added, some of which would be supplied with pipeline gas instead of LNG. It is also considering developments in Latin America and Asia.
