US-listed New Fortress Energy has started up its first LNG terminal in Mexico using its home-grown cargo shuttling operations from a full-size LNG carrier.
The company said its new terminal in the port of Pichilingue in Mexico's Baja California Sur state has begun commercial operations. A local launch event is planned for 16 July.
New Fortress said the facility — its fourth terminal — will use its ISOFlex system, under which cargo from a full-size LNG carrier is offloaded into ISO containers that are stored on board an offshore support vessel fitted with a special manifold. These are then shipped ashore and offloaded.
Mothership
Eikland Energy data service iGIS/LNG said the 138,183-cbm Castillo de Villalba (built 2003) has been anchored up to four nautical miles (4 km) off the new terminal site for almost a month.
The vessel is believed to have shipped in the cargo for the facility.
New Fortress unveiled the ISOFlex concept in August 2020 in a bid to overcome what it said was the constraint in small-scale LNG shipping.
By October, the company said it had bought an unnamed OSV, which it did not name, except to refer to it as NFE Zero. This vessel, the 3,644-dwt ex-Terrel Tide (built 2009), is currently showing as off La Paz.
New Fortress also said at the time that it was buying 10,000-gallon ISO containers, planned to buy two barges, had hired a shipping executive to head up operations and opened an office in Louisiana to manage the business.
The company said the ISO containers can be easily offloaded at container ports and onto trucks, which cuts time, permitting requirements and capital costs for the development of its terminals.
Milestone
Speaking about the company’s first use of the ISOFlex system, New Fortress vice president of project development Sam Abdalla said: “This is a big achievement for NFE and will enable us to deliver critical energy infrastructure and logistics solutions much more quickly and less expensively.”
New Fortress chairman and chief executive Wes Edens said: “The delivery of more affordable and cleaner-burning natural gas is a significant milestone for Baja California Sur. Our facility will enable customers to significantly reduce emissions and costs by switching from oil-based fuels to natural gas.”
Under its agreement, New Fortress will supply natural gas to the CTG La Paz and CTG Baja California Sur power plants in Baja California Sur through the terminal.
The company is also nearing completion of its own 135 MW gas-fired power plant in Baja California Sur. This is due to start operations later this quarter.
The new terminal also has facilities for truck loading operations to supply LNG to local hotels and industrial customers. New Fortress said the first industrial customers in Los Cabos are expected to begin operations with natural gas in the next two months.
New Fortress has been pumping out announcements this month. The company earlier unveiled it has signed up to LNG supply that will keep its projects fed through to 2027. It has also signed an agreement to develop Sri Lanka’s first LNG import terminal using a floating storage and regasification unit.
