New Fortress Energy nearing new LatAm investment decision

New Fortress Energy (NFE) expects to make a final investment decision on a fourth LNG terminal in Brazil in 90-120 days, according to CEO Wes Edens.

The executive made the comment during the company’s 2020 fourth quarter earnings call on Tuesday where he said the facility is planned for Santa Catarina.

In January, NFE announced a deal – due to close this quarter – to acquire Hygo Energy Transition that includes an FSRU terminal in operation at Sergipe and two other FSRU terminals under development at Barcarena and Suape.

“The key regulatory reforms are in place to basically emerge from a vertically integrated monopoly run by [federal oil company] Petrobras to an open and competitive gas market that will solve supply constraints and also deliver gas to new areas of the country as we see an underdeveloped gas grid and gas infrastructure develop over time,” NFE’s Brazil coordinator Andrew Dete told the call.

Dete highlighted Santa Catarina’s geographic location in the south of Brazil and the expectation that the terminal would compete against declining gas imports from Bolivia and serve stranded demand.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, New York-based NFE already operates two terminals in Jamaica and one in Puerto Rico and expects to bring terminals online in Mexico and Nicaragua in the coming months.

NFE highlighted that it was awarded a supply contract by Mexico’s state electricity company CFE to supply 250,000 gallons/day of LNG.

The company also reported that it made a final investment decision on a modular liquefaction facility design – dubbed Fast LNG – to provide low-cost LNG and is looking at blue and green hydrogen.