NFE zeroes in on start date at Altamira
US-based LNG player New Fortress Energy (NFE) is less than two months away from exporting its first shipment off the coast of Mexico’s Tamaulipas state, bordering Texas on the Gulf of Mexico. NFE is one of several private and foreign-owned natural gas and LNG companies making rapid inroads into Mexico’s energy space with multi-billion-dollar partnerships with state-owned energy firms CFE and Pemex.
NFE’s Altamira export plant will be joined by Sempra Infrastructure’s 3.25 MTPA (metric tons of annual LNG export capacity) Energía Costa Azul project north of Ensenada, Baja California state, and Mexico Pacific’s recently announced 15 MTPA Saguaro Energía LNG project in Puerto Libertad, Sonora. These projects are on track to convert Mexico into one of the world’s top LNG exporters in a matter of years. Demand for LNG in Europe exploded with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as mobile LNG supply emerges to be a critical factor in global energy markets and geopolitics in general.
NFE’s Gulf Coast export projects look to target European markets, with the company exporting LNG produced by liquefying natural gas supplied from the fast gas fields in Texas, as well as potentially from Pemex’s deepwater gas wells at the Lakach site. Meanwhile, ECA and Saguaro are poised to ship LNG west to Asian markets in the coming years.
During the company’s August 8 2Q23 call to investors, NFE CEO Wes Edens offered an update on the US$1.3 billion FLNG 1, the 1.4 MTPA liquefier unit at Altamira, Tamaulipas, saying the unit “is in the process of being deployed as we speak, is materially complete.”
CFO Christopher Guinta said the firm was on track to reach its target of COD (commercial operations date) by the third quarter of 2023, adding, “From a marine construction standpoint, all activities have been completed.”
FLNG 1 is made up of three specific rigs with the names Pioneer 1, 2 and 3. Pioneer 1 is the gas processing module. This is connected to the subsea riser and it dehydrates and prepares the gas for liquefaction. This unit is expected to mobilize and be installed around August 23
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