Bahia FSRU

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Bahia FSRU, also known as the TR-BA Regasification Terminal or the Madre de Deus Regasification Terminal, is an operating LNG terminal in the state of Bahia, Brazil.

Location

The terminal is located in the Bahia de Todos os Santos, 4 km west of Ilha dos Frades in the municipality of São Francisco do Conde, Bahia.

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Project Details

• Operator: Excelerate Energy
• Owner: Petrobras
• Vessel name: Excelerate Sequoia
• Vessel owner: Excelerate Energy
• Vessel parent company: Excelerate Energy
• Location: 4 km west of Ilha dos Frades, São Francisco do Conde, Bahia
• Coordinates: -12.785422, -38.703511 (approximate)
• Current Capacity: 5.6 mtpa (7.3 billion m³ per year)
• Status: Operating
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2014
• Financing:

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

Background

Owned and operated by Brazilian state oil company Petrobras, the Bahia LNG project consists of an offshore terminal with facilities for mooring a Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) Vessel and an LNG Supply Vessel in a side-by-side configuration. A 28-inch, 45-kilometer pipeline connects the terminal with two onshore delivery points, São Francisco do Conde Pressure Reducing Station and São Sebastião do Passé Flow Control Station. Gas from the terminal feeds into Brazil's national distribution network via the GASENE gas pipeline, a 1387-kilometer network supplying Brazil's Atlantic coast. Construction of the terminal began in 2012 and was completed in early 2014. As of August 2019, the Bahia facility was one of three LNG terminals operated by Petrobras on Brazil's Atlantic coast, together with the Guanabara Bay FSRU and the Pecém FSRU; the Petrobras terminals import LNG from various countries, including Trinidad and Tobago, Nigeria, Qatar, Spain and the United States.

In December 2019, Petrobras began accepting bids from private companies for leasing rights to the Bahia LNG Terminal, in accordance with the company's growing prioritization of deep water exploration and production over midstream and downstream operations. In March 2021, Brazil's national legislature approved a new gas law making it easier for private companies to access LNG infrastructure, including the under-utilized Bahia terminal. As of March 2021, Shell, Trafigura, GasBridge, and Panergy had already been authorized to import LNG through the Bahia terminal. Other companies pre-approved by Petrobras to compete for leasing rights include BP, Total, Repsol, Eneva, Bahiagás, Compass, Gás Natural do Brasil, Excelerate Energy, and Golar Power.

The first two rounds of bidding for leasing rights to the terminal were concluded in July 2020 and March 2021, with Golar Power being disqualified after the first round. In June 2021, Petrobras said that it had disqualified Excelerate Energy's bid on a lease for the terminal. In this second attempt by Petrobras to sell the lease, Excelerate was the only company to bid. Excelerate Energy's bid was ultimately accepted, and in December 2021 Excelerate took over operations at the Bahia terminal from Petrobras, becoming the first private company to enter Brazil's gas distribution market following enactment of the country's new gas law. Excelerate Energy paid $18.8 million for a two-year lease (through December 2023) and immediately installed its 173 400 m³ Excelerate Sequoia FSRU at the terminal, with a regasification capacity of 5 mtpa. In May 2022, Brazil's waterways transport regulator Antaq authorized Excelerate to begin commercial operations at the terminal.

In October 2023, Excelerate announced that it had signed a ten-year charter with Petrobras, which would keep the Excelerate Sequoia operating in Brazil — primarily at the Bahia Regasification Terminal — from January 2024 through December 2033.