Jambelí FSRU

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Jambelí FSRU is a proposed floating LNG import terminal in El Oro Province, Ecuador. It is the first LNG project in Ecuador.

Location

The map below shows the approximate location of the Ecuador FLNG project in the Jambelí Canal off the coast of Bajo Alto, El Oro province, Ecuador.

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Project Details

• Owner: Sycar LLC
• Location: Jambelí Canal, Bajo Alto, El Oro Province
• Coordinates: -3.136490, -80.132792 (approximate)
• Capacity: 0.375 mtpa
• Status: Proposed
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2025

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

Background

In September 2019, Ecuador's Minister of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources Carlos Perez Garcia announced that the country would issue a tender in October for a small-scale floating LNG terminal. An exact location was not announced.

In July 2020, it was reported that the American company Sycar, in partnership with an unnamed LNG trading firm, planned to build the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), with construction expected to start in 2021 pending the completion of environmental licensing by the fourth quarter of 2020. The FSRU was to provide regasified LNG to the neighbouring 130 MW TermoGas Machala gas-fired power plant in El Oro province. The terminal was also expected to include an LNG truck-filling station.

On April 19, 2021, Sycar received approval of its Environmental Impact Study from the Ministry of Environment and Water, marking completion of the permitting phase. Sycar's website noted that the company intended for the Ecuador FLNG to serve as a stepping stone for future onshore LNG projects in Ecuador.

In January and February 2022, Sycar imported its first two shipments of LNG into Ecuador. Short-term plans called for LNG to be delivered in ISO tanks directly to industrial customers. Longer-term plans for development of the Jambelí floating regasification unit and associated port facility were reportedly still underway, with an anticipated start-up date of 2024.

A subsequent report on Sycar's Latin America operations, published in November 2022, indicated that an FSU with ship-to-truck loading facilities would begin operating in 2023, with a full-fledged FSRU to follow in 2025.

As of August 2024, Sycar's website continued to list an anticipated start-up date of 2025 for the Jambelí FSRU, but there was no clear indication of any further progress in developing the project.