Geramar FSRU

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

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Geramar FSRU is a proposed floating LNG Terminal in the state of Maranhão, Brazil.

Location

The proposed location for the Geramar terminal is in the port of Itaqui, near São Luis, the capital of Maranhão state, Brazil.

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Project Details

• Owner: TBD
• Location: Porto de Itaqui, Maranhão state, Brazil
• Coordinates: -2.579534, -44.368472 (approximate)
• Capacity: TBD
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2026
• Financing:

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

Background

The proposed terminal would supply natural gas to the proposed 1.8 GW Geramar III power station currently being developed by Gera Maranhão, which received its preliminary license from the Brazilian environmental authority Ibama in June 2019. According to documents filed with Ibama by Gera Maranhão in 2019, the terminal was to be operated by a third party and licensed separately from the power plant. Gera Maranhão was expected to enter the project in Brazil's forthcoming national energy auctions.

As of October 2020, the terminal's exact location was yet to be determined; Brazil's energy research agency EPE noted that it might be based offshore in the Bay of São Marcos or the Boqueirão Canal, or onshore in the Port of Itaqui or the surrounding vicinity. However, an October 2021 planning report from the Port of Itaqui specifically mentioned the use of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) in conjunction with the Gera Maranhão project.

A July 2021 report from Brazil's energy research agency EPE continued to list the Geramar Terminal as a key project under consideration, in the environmental licensing phase.

In April 2023, Brazil's national ports authority approved a petition from Itaqui's port administrator EMAP (Empresa Maranhense de Administração Portuária) requesting the right to develop a new berth (Berço 94) capable of acccommodating a 14 million m³/day FSRU. The new berth, together with pipelines and other associated infrastructure, was authorized to occupy an area of 28,000 m² within Itaqui's port zone. The decision cleared the way for EMAP to solicit bids from companies interested in developing an FSRU project at the Port of Itaqui. As of May 2023, EMAP declined to comment on its timeline for launching the bidding process, and it remained unclear whether Geramar intended to place a bid. Other competitors potentially interested in developing the project included Eneva and Servtec, which formed a joint venture in 2021 to assess prospects for operating an LNG terminal at Itaqui and New Fortress Energy, which had been contemplating a similar FSRU project in nearby São Marcos Bay.

As of August 2024, there had been no further news of plans to develop an LNG terminal at the Port of Itaqui, and the project's status remained unclear.