Bahía Blanca GasPort FSRU

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Bahia Blanca GasPort FSRU is a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Argentina.

Location

The terminal is located at Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Project details

• Owner: ENARSA (Energía Argentina, formerly IEASA); YPF
• Parent company: ENARSA (Energía Argentina); YPF
• Vessel Name: Excelerate Excelsior (in 2023)
• Vessel Owner: Excelerate Energy
• Location: Bahía Blanca, Buenos Aires province, Argentina
• Coordinates: -38.787534614264956, -62.28955444921712 (exact)
• Capacity: 3.8 mtpa
• Status: Idle
• Type: Import
• Start year: 2008

Background

Excelerate Energy's FSRU docked in Bahia Blanca, Source: Excelerate Energy

Bahia Blanca GasPort FSRU is a floating storage and regasification unit in Bahía Blanca (Buenos Aires province), Argentina. At the time of its commissioning in 2008, it was South America's first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and the world's second dockside regasification facility. The floating terminal includes a jetty-mounted natural gas offloading arm that connects to a regasification vessel.

Argentina has aimed to produce enough natural gas to be self sufficient and to export gas from Bahía Blanca via terminals such as the Bahía Blanca FLNG Export Terminal (briefly active from 2019 to 2020) and the proposed Argentina GNL Terminal, but with lulls in production the FSRU continues to be deemed a necessary supplement - especially during the winter - for Argentine energy needs.

Various vessels owned by Excelerate Energy have docked at the terminal. In 2011, the 138,000 m³ Excellence FSRU was replaced with the same-sized Excelsior FSRU. As of early 2017, the Exemplar was based at the Bahia Blanca port, offering a storage capacity of 150,900 m³.

In April 2021, Excelerate Energy won a tender to reactivate the Bahia Blanca regasification terminal, which had lain idle since 2018 with Argentina at the time focusing on its Vaca Muerta shale formation as a future source of gas domestically and for international exports. By 2021, the Vaca Muerta play had not lived up to expectations. In early June 2021, Excelerate announced that its Exemplar FSRU, with storage capacity of 150,900 m³, had recommenced operations at Bahia Blanca and would deliver LNG for the 2021 winter season in Argentina. Excelerate's facility operates in a closed loop vaporization mode and is directly connected to Argentina's energy grid.

In May 2022, Excelerate Energy announced that its Exemplar FSRU had returned to the Bahía Blanca GasPort for the winter 2022 season (May through August).

In March 2023, Excelerate Energy announced that it would seasonally deploy its Excelsior FSRU to Bahía Blanca GasPort during the second quarter of 2023 before returning it to service at the Wilhelmshaven TES FSRU in Germany during the third quarter. The Excelsior arrived in Argentina in May 2023 and remained at Bahía Blanca throughout the Argentine winter months, until the end of August 2023.

As of June 2024, GIIGNL reported that no vessel had been chartered at the Bahía Blanca GasPort for the 2024 season, apparently leaving the terminal idle.