• 11 Jul 2016

 

Small scale LNG is developing quickly and positively globally. More projects are finding its way and it is very much about creating smart and cost efficient solution for the users. Most of the islands in the Caribbean run their power generation on diesel oil or highly polluting fueloil. The focus on changing fuel has been on the agenda for a long time, but up to recently there have been  limited development.  Now, GasEner and Kanfer Shipping  (KS)  see clear opportunities to make head way in the Caribbean market and have signed a cooperation agreement in order to supply small scale infrastructure  solutions.

“Everybody wants LNG, but very few  are willing to make the  25-year commitment  and  invest  the  millions  needed  for  a  LNG  terminal”,  says  Federico  Martinez,  CEO  of GasEner. The Caribbean market lacks the  infrastructure to receive, store and regasify  small LNG. The needs of 40 to 250 MW power plants cannot be satisfied with scale-down solutions of standard  designs. Tailor made solutions  are needed  and Kanfer Shipping has what the clients  need to  make the  decision to convert to LNG. 

“Loading  the  LNG at the terminal, shipping, storing,  regasifying  and delivering it  to the power plant door  with  very  low  capital  investment,  sunken  cost  and  no  long-term  commitment  is  what  the  KS Floating  Storage &  Regasification Unit (FSRU)  brings to the market”, says Stig Hagen,  Managing Partner in Kanfer Shipping. The  solution  is  based  on  a  proprietary  articulated  tug  barge  design  licensed  exclusively  to  Kanfer Shipping. One barge will be moored, connected to onshore and pumping natural gas.

The other barge and the tug is on its way to/from the LNG source.  The ship  is a highly cost efficient, flexible,  robust solution and so is our floating storage and regasification. Most  small scale LNG terminal  projects  only  consider  land-based solutions. Kanfer Shipping believes there are far more merits in a floating terminal instead. When land-based terminals are built, the cost is sunk and the project is irreversible. Floating terminals can be moved from one location to another if the demand  declines  or  the  project moves forward to a land-based import terminal. This makes  the project far more flexible with less financial risk; additionally, time-to-market is considerably less  than onshore facilities.  “We can  do nothing about the LNG prices, but we will have a huge impact on the infrastructure cost” says Stig Hagen.