Guanabara Bay FSRU

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Guanabara Bay FSRU, known locally as the Terminal de Regaseificação da Baía de Guanabara, is a floating LNG import terminal in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Location

The terminal is located near Boqueirão Island in Guanabara Bay, north of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Project Details

• Terminal Operator: Petrobras
• Terminal Owner: Petrobras
• Vessel name: Excelerate Experience
• Vessel owner: Excelerate Energy
• Vessel parent company: Excelerate Energy
• Location: Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Coordinates: -22.782922, -43.131995 (exact)
• Capacity: 8.1 mtpa, 30 Mm³/day (10.95 bcm/year)
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2009

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

Background

Owned by Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, the Guanabara Bay LNG project is a floating offshore LNG terminal in Rio de Janeiro state. As of August 2019, it was one of three LNG terminals owned by Petrobras on Brazil's Atlantic coast, together with the Bahia FSRU and the Pecém FSRU; the Petrobras terminals import LNG from various countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, Qatar, Spain and the United States.

The terminal started operations in 2009 on the vessels Golar Spirit and Golar Winter. In its initial stage, the terminal had the capacity to supply 14 million cubic meters of gas per day to power plants in southeastern Brazil, including the Governador Leonel Brizola and Aureliano Chaves power stations. In 2014, Petrobras contracted with Excelerate Energy to add a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) known as the Experience, increasing storage capacity at the terminal to 170,000 cubic meters and regasification and sendout capacity to 22.5 million cubic meters per day. According to Excelerate Energy's website, the Experience at the time supplied 50% of Brazil’s LNG regasification capacity.

The terminal currently includes two separate berths, each equipped to moor an FSRU and a supply vessel in a cross-jetty configuration. A 28-inch, 15-kilometer pipeline transports gas from the Guanabara Bay terminal to the Campos Eliseos receiving station, where it is fed into southeastern Brazil's natural gas pipeline network.

In June 2016, Petrobras put the Guanabara Bay LNG terminal up for sale, along with the Pecém LNG import terminal in Ceará and the thermoelectric power plants associated with both terminals.

In recent years, several factors - including decreased domestic demand, increased domestic production, and foreign exchange spending limitations - have contributed to under-utilization of capacity at Brazil's LNG terminals. In early 2017, the Guanabara Bay terminal terminated its existing charter with the Golar Spirit FSRU, without making a clear announcement of future plans for a replacement vessel at the terminal. In October 2018 the Spirit was reassigned to the Bahia LNG Terminal, leaving the Guanabara Bay terminal indefinitely idle. As of February 2020, the Guanabara Bay terminal had reportedly received no LNG imports since 2018.

In response to low international prices and surging domestic demand, Petrobras has sought authorization to expand the terminal's regasification capacity to 30 million cubic meters per day. In September 2020 the company successfully completed a 30 Mm³/day test run at the Guanabara Bay facility, reportedly setting a new world record for regasification at an FSRU. In June 2021, regulators approved the terminal's increase in capacity from 20 Mm³/day to 30 Mm³/day.

In March 2021, Brazil's national legislature approved a new gas law, potentially paving the way for private companies to access the country's LNG infrastructure, including both new LNG terminals and existing facilities such as the Guanabara Bay terminal.