US-listed New Fortress Energy (NFE) has bought an offshore supply vessel and hired a shipping executive to progress its new LNG import solution.
NFE did not name the OSV, which has now been given the title of NFE 0, or the new executive, who is a former chief operating officer of a publicly-traded offshore service vessel services company.
The company said the new OSV and employee are key elements in its ISO Flex LNG shipping solution plan.
Under this concept, 10,000-gallon ISO containers would be filled with LNG shipped in on a large vessel and then transferred to barges for delivery ashore.
NFE said its ISO Flex solution can cut the delivery project timeline from 24 months to between three and six months. It should also reduce capital and operating costs by more than 50%, as it cuts out the need for the use of a small-scale LNG carrier.
The company said it has also identified two barges that it will buy shortly, and opened an office in Louisiana to manage this business.
In addition, it is building a proprietary manifold for use in these transfers, which will be in use by December.
'Game changer'
Speaking on its third-quarter results call, NFE co-founder and chief executive Wes Edens described ISO Flex as “a game changer”.
He said the solution will be deployed in NFE’s upcoming projects in Mexico and Nicaragua in the next few months.
“It’s a big deal for us,” he said.
NFE has three existing LNG terminals in operation — two in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico.
The company plans to complete a fourth at La Paz in Mexico by mid-December, with the associated power plant there operational by the end of first quarter of 2021.
A fifth in Nicaragua is due online at the end of first quarter of 2021 or early in the second.
Edens said NFE is focused on eight potential new projects worldwide in markets with large populations, existing power infrastructure and opportunities for economic growth.
He said the aim is to take a final investment decision on two of these before the end of the year.
NFE announced earlier that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Philippine National Oil Co on LNG to power.
The company is looking to bring on five to 10 projects next year and between 20 and 30 LNG terminals in the next five years.
Hydrogen moves
Edens spoke extensively about the company’s efforts to research hydrogen in its goal to become a net zero-emissions business.
He highlighted that the existing hydrogen production today is worth more — at around $125bn — than the LNG market at $90bn, adding that he was “shocked” by this.
Edens said NFE has looked at more than 150 companies in connection with its hydrogen goals and has made two investments in the third quarter.
The company is partnering with Long Ridge Energy Terminal on a 485 MW combined-cycle power plant to run on carbon-free hydrogen in what Edens described as “a big experiment”.
It has also teamed up with Israel-based H2Pro, which is looking at more efficient forms of electrolysis.
The company also revealed it had spent around $1m on Covid-19 costs, which included mandatory weekly testing for the whole company and paying bonuses to its onsite staff.
NFE reported that net losses for the first nine months of this year climbed to $263.5m from $166m in the comparable period of 2019.
But third-quarter losses shrank back to $36.7m from $54.5m a year earlier.
Total revenue for the nine months jumped to $306m from $119.4m in the same period last year.
Third-quarter revenue showed similar gains, up at $137m from $50m last year.
