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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.[1]
Location
The terminal is located near Boqueirão Island in Guanabara Bay, north of the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[2]
Project Details
- Terminal Operator: Petrobras[1][3][4]
- Terminal Owner: Petrobras[1][3][4]
- Vessel name: Excelerate Experience[3]
- Vessel owner: Excelerate Energy[2][3]
- Vessel parent company: Excelerate Energy[2][3]
- Location: Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[2]
- Coordinates: -22.782922, -43.131995 (exact)
- Capacity: 8.1 mtpa[4], 30 Mm3/day (10.95 bcm/year)[5]
- Status: Operating[3][4][6]
- Type: Import
- Start Year: 2009[2][3][7]
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[8]; the Petrobras terminals import LNG from various countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, Qatar, Spain and the United States.[9]
The terminal started operations in 2009 on the vessels Golar Spirit and Golar Winter.[10] 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.[11] 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.[1][2] According to Excelerate Energy's website, the Experience at the time supplied 50% of Brazil’s LNG regasification capacity.[12]
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.[13]
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.[14]
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.[15] 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.[7][16] As of February 2020, the Guanabara Bay terminal had reportedly received no LNG imports since 2018.[15]
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.[17] 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.[13] In June 2021, regulators approved the terminal's increase in capacity from 20 Mm3/day to 30 Mm3/day.[5]
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.[18][19]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Terminal de Regaseificação da Baía de Guanabara (GNL)". Petrobras. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Guanabara Bay LNG Import Terminal". Excelerate Energy. Retrieved 2021-04-18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "GIIGNL Annual Report 2024 (p 46)" (PDF). GIIGNL. 2024-06-03.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "2024 World LNG Report (p 153)". IGU. 2024-06-28.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 5.0 5.1 Fick, Jeff (2021-12-06). "Excelerate takes over operations of Brazil LNG terminal at Bahia: Petrobras". S&P Global.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Brazil's Guanabara Bay terminal to receive first LNG cargo in five months: CAS". S&P Global. 2024-06-05.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 7.0 7.1 "IGU World LNG Report 2019 (p 105)". IGU (International Gas Union). June 7, 2019.
- ↑ "Terminais de Regaseificação de GNL no Brasil: Panorama dos Principais Projetos (pp 16, 21)" (PDF). EPE (Empresa de Pesquisa Energética). August 30, 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Mercado nacional de GNL deve se diversificar nos próximos anos". Petrobras. March 10, 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Repositioned Golar Spirit brings Guanabara onstream". Riviera. April 21, 2009.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Terminal de GNL da Baía de Guanabara conclui etapa de testes". TN Petróleo. 01/04/2009.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Guanabara Bay LNG Import Terminal, utilizing the industry’s largest capacity FSRU – the Experience, Excelerate Energy, accessed May 2017
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "Petrobras alcança recorde de regaseificação de GNL". Agência Petrobras. September 17, 2020.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Petrobras puts two LNG terminals on sale, LNG World News, June 9, 2016
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 "Centrica sends cargo to launch Brazil's first private LNG terminal". Reuters. February 25, 2020.
- ↑ "Baía de Guanabara fica sem GNL por tempo indeterminado". ABEGÁS. October 5, 2018.
- ↑ "Petrobras says on track to raise Rio's LNG import capacity by 50%, pending license". Reuters. September 17, 2020.
- ↑ "Brazil's gas market draws growing competition". Argus Media. March 25, 2021.
- ↑ "Nova Lei do Gás é aprovada no Congresso Nacional". Ministério de Minas e Energia. March 17, 2021.
