Coega FSRU

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Coega FSRU is a proposed LNG import terminal in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.

Location

The map below shows the location of the project's site, in Coega Industrial Development Zone, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape Province.

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Project Details

• Operator:
• Owner: Karpowership
• Parent company: Karadeniz Holdings
• Location: Coega Industrial Development Zone, Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
• Coordinates: -33.78287, 25.7084 (exact)
• Proposed Capacity:
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Import
• Start Year:
• Associated Infrastructure: Karpowership Coega power station, Richards Bay FSRU, Saldanha Bay FSRU

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

In 2005, a project was announced to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal and a gas-fired power plant in Coega Industrial Development Zone. The project was revitalized in 2015, when the Coega Development Corporation issued a tender notice for an environmental impact assessment for the power plant. The power plant would have 1,000 MW capacity.

As of October 2016, South Africa's Department of Energy was exploring possible bidders to develop, build, and operate the project. The energy produced would be sold to Eskom, South Africa's state-owned power utility. The cost of the entire project would be roughly $2 billion.

The terminal will have an initial capacity of 0.6 mtpa and is expected to begin operations in 2020.

There have been no updates since 2017 and the project is presumed to be shelved.

In November 2019, South Africa's Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, said at the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town that Coega will be the initial home for an LNG import terminal, suggesting that plans for the terminal may still materialize.

In November 2021, South Africa's Central Energy Fund issued a request for information around the development of an independently-managed midstream LNG hub in Coega, including a floating storage and regasification (FSRU) unit.

Karpowership South Africa FSRU Plans

In April 2022, Engineering News reported that Karpowership was showcasing an FSRU vessel in Cape Town, and that it planned to deploy three vessels to Richards Bay, Saldhana Bay, and Coega to generate a total of 1.2 MW of power. Karpowership vessels are designed to regasify LNG and generate power. The power plant attributes of the facility are described on the page for Karpowership Coega power station within the Global Gas Plant Tracker.

In August 2023, Global Energy Monitor's Inside Gas wrote: "Despite two years of delays, Karpowership’s director for South Africa, Mehmet Katmer, has said he is confident of advancing the company’s three floating gas-to-power projects through a third public participation process. The proposals at the ports of Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay, and Ngqura (Coega) that would involve the importing of LNG have so far failed to gain environmental clearance, with NGOs raising concerns over adverse impacts on fishing and marine life. However, Katmer believes that environmental licenses for all three projects could be issued by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment within months, and Karpowership would be ready to implement them before the end of next year. The state-run power utility Eskom has also recently granted the company an extension to access to the South African grid until the end of 2023."

In January 2024, Inside Gas said that Karpowerships projects were "almost dead in the water," after the state-owned power utility Eskom took away the company's grid access rights, as it had not met a December 31 financial close deadline for its three gas-to-power projects proposed at South African ports.