LNGNEWS Canada
Mexico
Operations commence at NFE’s LNG terminal
N
ew Fortress Energy Inc. has announced that its LNG terminal in the port of Pichilingue, Baja California Sur, Mexico has begun commercial operations. “The delivery of more affordable and cleaner-burning natural gas is a significant milestone for Baja California Sur,” said Wes Edens, Chairman and CEO of NFE. “Our facility will enable customers to significantly reduce emissions and costs by switching from oil-based fuels to natural gas.” The introduction of natural gas into the Baja California Sur market will help enable more energy efficiency, cost savings, and emissions reductions as it displaces fossil fuels. It also provides opportunities for job creation; training of a new, more specialised workforce; economic development; and improved environmental management. The terminal features NFE’s proprietary ISOFlex system, which allows larger LNG carrier vessels to transload LNG into ISO storage containers on offshore support vessels (OSVs) with a specialised manifold. These ISO storage containers can be easily offloaded at container ports and onto trucks, which enables the reduction of time, permitting requirements, and capital costs for the development of NFE’s terminals. “We are proud to have deployed the first-of-a-kind ISOFlex system at our terminal in Baja California Sur,” said Sam Abdalla, Vice President of Project Development of NFE. “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.” Under the terms of an agreement signed in March, NFE will supply natural gas to the CTG La Paz and CTG Baja California Sur power plants in Baja California Sur through the terminal.
Construction of LNG Canada project reaches new milestone
T
hree towering pieces of equipment critical to the gas liquefaction process have arrived at the LNG Canada site in Kitimat, Canada, as construction activities progress through the project’s ‘going vertical’ stage. Crews spent a week carefully offloading a 345 t main cryogenic heat exchanger (MCHE) and two precooler units, which weigh 308 t and 284 t respectively, from a cargo ship docked at the LNG Canada project’s new material offloading facility (MOF) in Kitimat Harbour. The equipment was then placed on large, self-propelled modular transporters, which will slowly move the pieces along the project site’s new 3 km-long haul road to the main construction area in the coming days, where they will soon be connected to other pieces of LNG infrastructure. The largest of the three new pieces of equipment, the MCHE is approximately 50 m in length. Once installed vertically, it will be among the most visible components at the LNG Canada facility. It is the first of two MCHE units built by Linde plc for the LNG Canada project; the second MCHE is expected to arrive later this year, along with two more precoolers. Often described as the ‘heart’ of an LNG facility, MCHEs are made to liquefy natural gas. Gas enters an MCHE near its base and exits at its top in a sub-cooled, liquefied state, at -160˚C. The liquefied gas is then piped to a storage tank, and from there it is loaded onto specialised carriers for ocean transport. Precoolers are also integral to the process, increasing efficiencies during different stages of gas liquefaction. All three pieces of infrastructure are precision engineered from aluminium and are pressure tested prior to delivery.
Norway
Gasnor and Wintershall Dea sign LNG supply agreement
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asnor and Wintershall Dea have entered into an agreement on LNG deliveries to supply vessels on the Norwegian shelf. From the start, deliveries will go to Viking Princess, delivered from the LNG bunkering terminal at Mongstad Base. When using LNG-powered supply vessels, the emissions associated with the supply services will be reduced by approximately 30%.
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August 2021
Viking Princess is equipped with technology that makes it possible to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2400 tpy – corresponding to emissions from approximately 1200 cars. The 90 m long and 21 wide vessel is equipped with dual fuel engines that can use both marine gasoil (MGO) and LNG as fuel, and also has a battery pack for efficient energy management.
