A first small-scale cargo of LNG appears to have been delivered into the US naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by energy major Shell.
Kpler ship tracking data shows the 20,000-cbm Avenir Achievement (built 2022), which is on term charter to Shell, arrived in a laden condition on 22 April.
Previously the Avenir LNG-owned vessel loaded a cargo at the Elba Island LNG facility on 13 March, later bunkering the 15,124-teu container ship newbuilding Zim Sammy Ofer at the Kingston Freeport Terminal in Jamaica on 26 March.
A shipping source said Guantanamo Bay is not a US territory for purposes of the Jones Act as it occupies the base under a lease with Cuba which never ceded sovereignty over the property to the US military
In 2018 the US’ Defense Logistics Agency Energy, working with the Department of the Navy, issued a solicitation to procure volumes of US LNG over a five-year period to support activities of the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB) in Cuba.
The LNG was required to supply a 24MW natural gas combined cycle power plant — the Corinaso Point Power Plant and LNG terminal.
Online photos show the installation of four LNG bullet-type storage tanks each capable of holding around 265,000 gallons of LNG.
An off-loading system, a 1,000-foot subsea pipeline and onshore LNG regasification modules are also thought to have been put in place.
In 2021 the US Department of the Navy said the use of LNG will result in approximately $9 million in fuel cost savings annually when compared to the cost of using diesel fuel.
The project, which is said to represent the first use of LNG at an overseas military installation, was originally due to be completed in February 2022.
Also called GTMO, or colloquially ‘Gitmo’ by the US military, the naval base is located on 117 square kilometres of land at the southeastern tip of Cuba which was permanently leased to the US in 1903.
It is the oldest overseas US naval base in the world and shot into international headlines in 2002 when its military prison was used to detain those suspected of taking part in terrorist activities. In February 2023 the US Department of Defense said 32 detainees remain at the prison.
