Excelerate Energy, Houston, and Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority have filed a preliminary application with the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to install and operate floating offshore LNG regasification off the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
The Aguirre Offshore GasPort would be about 4 miles offshore Puerto Rico’s southern coast, near the town of Salinas. It would provide fuel to the Aguirre Central Complex and would underpin the conversion of power generation from imported oil to natural gas.
The Central Aguirre Power Complex will convert 900 Mw of existing power generation to be dual-fueled, capable of using No. 2 diesel or natural gas or both as primary fuel.
Excelerate’s proprietary dockside LNG receiving terminal technology—GasPort—is a shoreside application, says the company’s web site, that takes about 12 months from “investment decision to operation” to install.
GasPort incorporates a jetty-mounted, articulated, high-pressure gas-offloading arm and uses Excelerate’s Energy Bridge floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to vaporize LNG into natural gas for market. A specialized, purpose-built FSRU, moored at GasPort, can deliver regasified LNG at pipeline pressure at 50-800 MMcfd.
Excelerate and Puerto Rico’s power authority said they anticipate FERC to issue a draft environmental impact statement in third-quarter 2013 and a final EIS in early 2014. Pending FERC approval, the facility will be in service in early-2015.