Wes Edens-led New Fortress Energy is planning to create a floating LNG (FLNG) production hub in the Gulf of Mexico.
The US-listed company said on Friday it has finalised a series of agreements, originally announced on 5 July, which are due to be inked at a ceremony in Mexico City on 3 November.
Under these New Fortress will deploy multiple 1.4 million tonne per annum capacity FLNG units that will use feedgas supplied by Mexican state electric utility Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE) via its currently underutilised pipeline transportation capacity.
New Fortress said its first FLNG unit, which is under construction at the Kiewit Offshore Services shipyard near Corpus Christi, Texas, is currently expected to achieve mechanical completion in March 2023, and will be delivered to Altamira shortly after this.
“As part of the agreements, CFE would share in the production and marketing of a portion of the LNG volumes from the new Altamira offshore FLNG hub,” the company added.
In August, New Fortress revealed that it was expanding its FLNG ambitions under its so-called ‘Fast LNG’ business to include two new sites off Mexico that, in addition to a planned US Gulf location, would give the company the potential to produce a total of 8 mtpa of LNG.
At that time, the company also said it was also working with state energy company Petroleos de Mexico, better known as Pemex, on a site at Lakach off Veracruz to develop 1trn cubic feet of gas reserves lying 70 km offshore.
Under the deals scheduled to be signed next week New Fortress will also sell its 135-MW La Paz power to CFE. Edens company started commercial operations of an LNG regasification terminal in the port of Pichilingue in La Paz in July 2021.
In addition, New Fortress has agreed to expand and its natural gas supply to multiple CFE power generation facilities in Baja California Sur.
CFE is trying to expand the use of renewable energy resources and lower emissions in the region by nearly half a million tonnes of CO2 per year.
New Fortress chairman and chief executive Edens said he is looking forward to seeing Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador next week for the signings.
“We are pleased to complete these agreements and expand our strategic alliance with CFE, which we expect to result in the delivery of our first FLNG unit by mid-2023 and enable the construction of a new LNG hub off the coast of Altamira,” he said.
