By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Mar. 2 -- Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) reported it will install a third offshore LNG terminal.
The Bahia regasification terminal (TRBA), with capacity to regasify 14 million cu m/day (cmd), will supply natural gas to the state of Bahia, the heaviest consumer of gas among the northeastern Brazilian states.
TRBA will be installed in the Bay of All Saints and interconnect with a pipeline network at two sites: one in the Bahia network, at Candeias, and the other at kilometer 910 on the Cacimbas-Catu pipeline, a section of the Southeast-Northeast Gas Pipeline started up in March 2010.
As part of Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Program, Petrobras said, work will begin in March 2012 with completion scheduled for August 2013 under an investment of nearly $425 million.
Currently, Brazil has LNG terminals at Pecem (State of Ceara) with a regasification capacity of 7 million cmd, and in the Guanabara Bay (State of Rio de Janeiro) with capacity of 14 million cmd. When the TRBA terminal comes online in September 2013, Brazil’s total regasification capacity will reach 35 million cmd, overtaking the gas imports via pipeline from Bolivia (31 million cmd).
At the Pecem and Guanabara Bay terminals, tankers moor at a two-berth pier and LNG is transferred over cryogenic arms from supply vessel to regasification vessel. At the TRBA terminal, LNG will be transferred directly between vessels using side-by-side docking, which means that the regasification vessel will dock at a single-berth, island-type pier, said the company.
With direct connection to the supply vessel, LNG will be transferred over short hoses or loading arms to the regasification vessel, which will convert LNG back into a vapor.
Gas will then be injected into the pipeline network through a 28-in. pipeline that is 49 km long including a 15-km subsea section.
Petrobras noted that currently only two other LNG terminals in the world use this configuration: Bahia Blanca in Argentina and the UAE’s Dubai terminal.
Rendering from Cedar LNG.
EIA.
