Norway’s Kanfer Shipping has teamed with Brazilian trading and LNG project development company Nimofast to work together on selling and delivering small-scale parcels of LNG to customers along the coast of Brazil.
The two companies signed a partnership agreement under which they will offer small and medium-scale LNG shipping, small-scale floating storage units (FSUs) and LNG bunkering solutions to clients in Brazil from 2025 onwards.
The deal envisages basing an FSU at Nimofast’s LNG import and distribution terminal in the state of Parana from which small-scale LNG carriers and bunker vessels would load.
Nimofast Brasil is licensed to import LNG into Brazil.
The company recently announced that it has secured enough LNG offtake volumes to support a final investment decision via supply contracts with GNLink, a company controlled by asset manager Lorinvest, and with energy trading company Migratio Gas.
Its planned terminal is due to be operational in 2025.
Kanfer is building two 6,000-cbm LNG bunker vessels in China that are due for delivery by the second half of 2023.
The company has previously announced it is working with partners on an LNG bunkering hub for the Suez Canal region and an ammonia bunkering initiative in Australia.
Speaking about this latest hook-up with Nimofast, Kanfer chief executive Stig Hagen said his company would use its patented technologies to improve both the availability and accessibility of LNG for customers in Brazil while being cost-efficient.
Hagen said Kanfer’s small-scale solutions for sea transport, storage and bunkering create “a virtual LNG pipeline, solving a critical gap in the LNG supply chain”.
Nimofast president Ramon Reis said: “We noticed that many clients in Brazil, either require relatively small volumes of LNG, or do not have suitable port infrastructure to build or to justify their own LNG import terminal.”
Reis said the partnership with Kanfer would allow it to deliver LNG to any customer along the Brazilian coastline regardless of the requested volumes or port draught limitations.
“We also see LNG bunkering as a growth market to meet environmental and economic objectives by using LNG as a fuel in shipping,” he added.
Swiss project finance advisor Maius is advising Nimofast.
