New Fortress Energy is prioritising a search for a gas source for its first fast-tracked floating LNG unit and the build-out of planned terminals in Brazil.
The plans come in the wake of its completion of a $5.1bn buyout of Hygo Energy Transition and Golar LNG Partners.
On a call, New Fortress chairman and chief executive Wes Edens told analysts that the company took a final investment decision on its FLNG project on 8 March.
He said the unit will take 16 months to complete and will be ready to install by the fourth quarter of 2022.
‘The big one’
Edens, who revealed that he has a daily 8am call on the company’s FLNG plans, said securing gas for the unit is his “highest priority” and reiterated his call to anyone who would like to get in touch on this.
“My goal is to have a gas source identified in the next 90 days or so,” he said. “That’s the big one.”
Edens called the Hygo-Golar LNG Partners buyouts a “big transformative event” for New Fortress.
He said the US-listed company now needs to focus on building out the four new terminals in Brazil, convert commercial LNG volumes under discussion to committed one and get a gas contract in place for the FLNG unit.
With the completion of the transaction, announced late on Thursday in the US, New Fortress acquires 141 staff from Hygo’s operations in Brazil, boosting its headcount to more than 500.
Edens said the buys also expand the company’s geographical reach and nearly double New Fortress’ LNG terminal portfolio with the addition of four facilities in Brazil.
Aside from the seven floating storage and regasification units and six LNG carriers acquired under the buyouts, he revealed that the company also takes on “one leased ship” in Indonesia. This is believed to be the 125,000-cbm FSRU Nusantara Regas Satu (built 1977).
World ambition
Edens outlined how New Fortress was heading for a profit margin of $450m prior to the transaction, but with the addition of the new businesses, the build-out of the terminals and the company's first “fast FLNG” unit, he expects this to have risen to $1.6bn by the end of 2022.
He said the company currently has no need to raise additional capital: “I think the world is in front of us.”
New Fortress now has four LNG terminals in operation — two in Jamaica, one in Puerto Rico and the large FSRU-based facility for the Sergipe power plant in Brazil.
Edens said the company expects to complete its La Paz terminal in Mexico at the end of May and its Nicaragua facility a month later.
He said the Barcarena terminal in the north of Brazil should be online by next January, with a facility at Suape operational in the first quarter of 2022. The Santa Catarina terminal in the south will follow in the second quarter. All three will use FSRUs.
In addition, the company expects to bring a first terminal onstream in Ireland in the second half of 2022.
