Tergás LNG Terminal

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Tergás LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG terminal in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Given the absence of new developments in more than two years, the project is presumed to be shelved.

Location

The proposed terminal will be located in the port zone of Rio Grande, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil.

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Project Details

• Owner: Grupo Cobra
• Location: Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil
• Coordinates: -32.118353, -52.106161 (approximate)
• Capacity: 6 million cubic meters per day (MMcm/d)
• Status: Shelved
• Type: Import
• Start Year:
• Financing:

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

Background

The Tergás regasification terminal is part of a larger project encompassing the 1238 MW Rio Grande power station. Both are to be constructed in the port zone of Rio Grande, RS in southern Brazil. The proposed terminal would be the first onshore LNG terminal in Brazil, with an initial processing capacity of 6 million cubic meters per day. The project was originally to be developed by Gás Energy New Ventures, a partnership between Fundo InfraBrasil/Santander and Avir Geração de Energia.

The Tergás project was first proposed in 2008, but development stalled. Brazil's national electricity agency ANEEL revoked the power plant's environmental license in 2017, and in 2018, Brazil's Federal Public Ministry (MPF) recommended that Rio Grande do Sul's state environmental protection agency Fepam refrain from issuing a license for the regasification terminal.

Following a court injunction in 2020 the project was revived, with support from Rio Grande's municipal government. Both the power plant and terminal were granted installation licenses by the state environmental authority Fepam in February 2022, with commercial operations expected to start as early as 2024.

Original plans called for the terminal to be developed as a FSRU (floating storage and regasification unit) by Brazil's Bolognesi Group in partnership with the US-based company Excelerate Energy. However, by the time the 2022 installation license was granted, the proposal had been significantly modified, taking the form of an onshore LNG terminal in the Port of Rio Grande under the ownership of Spanish-owned Grupo Cobra.

In early April 2022, a ruling from Brazil's Superior Court of Justice (STJ) upheld ANEEL's 2017 revocation of the power plant's license, putting the entire gas-to-power project back on hold. Throughout the month of April the project's future remained in limbo, as original power plant owner Bolognesi Energia continued to seek ANEEL's approval for a transfer of ownership to Spanish-owned Grupo Cobra, a legal maneuver designed to keep the project alive. In late April 2022, ANEEL reaffirmed its decision to reject the project, even under new ownership. Despite these setbacks, the owners continued to hold out hope that a forthcoming report from Brazil's national energy research agency EPE might deem the power plant critical to the national energy grid, thereby reviving the project once more.

In October 2022, Jaime Llopis, the CEO of Grupo Cobra in Brasil, asserted that the project could still begin commercial operations by 2026 if ANEEL were to grant its approval.

In April 2023, Rio Grande mayor Fábio Branco and Rio Grande do Sul governor Eduardo Leite met with ANEEL officials in Brasilia to discuss alternative options for moving the project forward, but the meeting ended without any noteworthy new breakthroughs.

As of September 2024, in the absence of any significant forward movement on the Tergás terminal in more than two years, the project was presumed to be shelved.