New Fortress advancing Brazil, Mexico LNG projects
New Fortress Energy Inc. expects to begin commercial operations at its two 6-million tonne/year LNG terminals in Brazil over the next 3 months. Its terminal in Barcarena, at the mouth of the Amazon River on the country’s northern coast, is set for December 2023 startup, with Santa Catarina in southern Brazil set to follow in January 2024.
Barcarena will be the sole natural gas supplier in the region, according to New Fortress. Norsk Hydro ASA is the project’s anchor customer, having signed a 15-year agreement to supply 29.5 trillion btu/year (81 MMcfd) of natural gas to its Hydro Alunorte alumina refinery in Para, Brazil. New Fortress is building a 624-Mw power plant at the same site for 2025 startup and will use the regasified LNG to fuel it.
Santa Catarina will be connected to an existing gas distribution pipeline to help replace declining gas imports from Bolivia.
The third and final rig of New Fortress’ 1.4-million tonne/year (tpy) Fast LNG (FLNG 1) plant offshore Altamira, Mexico, arrived on station earlier this month (OGJ Online, Sept. 29, 2023). The company now plans to build FLNG 2 onshore, according to its third-quarter 2023 earnings report, having set aside land for a 1.4-million tpy train adjacent to 300,000 cu m of storage. New Fortress plans to bring FLNG 2 online in 2025, using 200 MMcfd of feedgas supplied by pipeline from Texas.
Christopher E. Smith | Editor in Chief
Christopher brings 27 years of experience in a variety of oil and gas industry analysis and reporting roles to his work as Editor-in-Chief, specializing for the last 15 of them in midstream and transportation sectors.