New Fortress Energy Inc. (NFE) announced today that its liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the port of Pichilingue, Baja California Sur, Mexico has begun commercial operations and will host an event featuring state and local officials at the terminal on Friday, July 16th.
“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 specialized 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 with a specialized 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.
Additionally, NFE has nearly completed construction of its own gas-fired power plant in Baja California Sur with a capacity of approximately 135 megawatts that is anticipated to begin operations and the supply of power to the local grid later this quarter.
The terminal’s truck loading operations were designed for the supply of LNG to local hotels and industrial customers. The first industrial customers in Los Cabos are expected to begin operations with natural gas in the next two months.
