Brazil’s two LNG import terminals both received their first commissioning cargoes within weeks of each other using the FSRU Golar Spirit
On 11 March 2009 the inaugural cargo was delivered to the Guanabara terminal in Rio de Janeiro Bay, Brazil’s second LNG import facility, by the 138,000m3 Excellence. Operations at both Guanabara and Pecem, the country’s first terminal, which is situated in the northern state of Ceara, are based on the use of LNG carriers converted into floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs). The Guanabara delivery comes only several weeks after the start-up of operations at Pecem.
The FSRU Golar Spirit, a 1981-built, 128,600m3 spherical tank vessel, handled the initial operation at Pecem. As soon as that cargo was discharged, using the onboard regasification equipment, the vessel sailed south to berth at the new purpose-built Guanabara jetty to accept the cargo delivered by Excellence. The FSRU that will serve Guanabara, the 2004-built, 138,000m3 membrane tank Golar Winter, is currently nearing the final stages of the conversion work at the Keppel yard in Singapore.
The FSRU conversion projects are enabling Brazil to import LNG much more quickly and at much lower cost than would have been the case if shore reception terminals had to be built. Petrobras, the Brazilian state energy company, is chartering both the Golar Spirit and Golar Winter FSRUs for 10-year periods, with options to extend for a further five years.
The FSRUs will enable Brazil to not only meet its burgeoning energy needs in a timely fashion but also to diversify its power resource base. Deliveries of pipeline gas from Bolivia are inadequate to meet the country’s growing gas needs while seasonal variations in the contribution made by hydroelectric power to the national grid create supply gaps.
Golar Winter has a higher regasification capacity than Golar Spirit and once that vessel is on station, the new Guanabara jetty facilities will be able to accommodate gas flows at volumes equivalent to deliveries of 3.8 million tonnes of LNG per annum. The Guanabara berth has three sets of jetty-mounted marine loading arms, comprising two sets of three liquid arms and one set of two high-pressure gas arms.
In a typical operation the delivery gas carrier discharges LNG via one set of liquid arms across the main jetty to another set of liquid arms and into the FSRU. The high-pressure gas arms are utilised to transfer regasified cargo from the FSRU via the jetty pipelines into the main onshore transmission lines.
The Excellence LNG shipment, which was loaded in Trinidad, was a commissioning cargo for use in testing the new Guanabara terminal facilities. Commercial deliveries will begin later in the year. Brazil’s dry season, when the contribution made by hydroelectric power drops, is May to November.
Petrobras has signed agreements with BG and Shell covering the supply of LNG to its two terminals. For the LNG that will be regasified at the Guanabara terminal priority will be given to its use in thermoelectric plants serving Rio de Janeiro. The offshore berth is connected to the shore grid and the nearby plants by means of a 15km gas pipeline, 10km of which is subsea and 5km overland. LNG
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