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Back in February 2020, NFE signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Distribuidora de Electricidad del Norte (DisNorte) and Distribuidora de Electricidad del Sur (DisSur), Nicaragua’s electricity distribution companies.
As part of the deal, NFE agreed to build a natural gas-fired power plant with a capacity of about 300 megawatts near Puerto Sandino to supply power to Nicaragua’s national electric grid, and an LNG receiving, storage, and regasification terminal.
NFE said at the time that the facility was expected to begin commercial operations in the second half of 2021, subject to various conditions.
The company said in August this year it expects to launch the project in the fourth quarter of this year.
First quarter
Speaking during NFE’s third-quarter earnings results on Thursday, NFE chief Wes Edens, said the Nicargua project “is the last of the terminals that we expect to go operational.”
“Our expectation is still in Q1,” Edens said.
“The 300 megawatt power plant is 100 percent complete. The jetty and the FSU is 95 percent complete. We expect that to be completed here in the next month or two,” he said.
Edens said the pipeline, which is about five miles (eight kilometers) long, had been dredged and “is being put in place.”
“So, just the remaining works really include finalizing the jetty and then connecting the pipeline from the terminal to the power plant,” he said.
“And we expect the Freeze, our FSRU, will go in there when it gets out of the dry dock at the end of this year,” he said.
According to its AIS data, the 125,856-cbm Energos Freeze was on Friday located at the Navantia yard in El Ferrol, Spain.
Altamira LNG production boost
Edensa also said during the call that the firm has loaded the fourth LNG cargo at its FLNG (Fast LNG) project off Mexico’s Altamira.
“We’re just completing our fourth cargo, I believe, this morning,” he said,
Edens did not provide further information regarding the shipment.
The company recently shipped the third LNG cargo from its FLNG project off Mexico’s Altamira to its operation in Puerto Rico.
In September, NFE shipped the first full LNG cargo from its first FLNG project to Europe.
This shipment onboard the 138,000-cbm Energos Princess recently arrived at the Dutch Gate LNG terminal in the port of Rotterdam.
Before this, NFE loaded the first Altamira LNG cargo in August.
This partial shipment was delivered to NFE’s La Paz, Mexico terminal.
According to NFE, the company’s Altamira LNG unit is producing above its nameplate capacity of 1.4 mtpa.
Edens said this “is now the time of the process in the liquefier that you then sit down with the vendors and brainstorm about debottlenecking and operational changes that you can implement to increase production.”
“We had a big meeting in Houston on Monday exactly on this. It went really well,” he said.
“Our team is quite positive that there’s a number of short-term additions that we can bring into it to add 3 to 5 to 10 percent of nameplate capacity,” he said.
Seeking strategic partners
NFE also recently said that it is seeking strategic partners for one or more of its core businesses to boost the company’s liquidity.
Last month, NFE announced a series of financing transactions that upon closing are intended to increase the company’s liquidity and financial flexibility.
“In furtherance of these goals, the company has begun work to identify strategic partners for one or more of its primary businesses, including projects in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, FLNG 1, and Klondike,” NFE said.
The company expects to explore financings, commercial ventures, or asset sales with potential strategic partners.
Edens said during the call that NFE “believes that the some of the parts of our businesses and units are worth significantly more than the current debt and equity levels of the company.”
“And so our focus is to close that gap by focusing on individual assets that can be capitalized, bringing partners, etc., to realize that value,” he said.
