New Fortress to start LNG production at Mexico plant by end-June
June 14 (Reuters) - New Fortress Energy said on Friday it expects to start production of liquefied natural gas at its offshore Altamira-based plant in Mexico in the next ten days and would begin shipping the gas in July.
The pre-operations and remaining commissioning activities have been completed, New Fortress said.
The U.S. LNG producer’s Altamira plant is Mexico’s first such facility and has been delayed several times.
In May, the company said it expected to export the first cargo in June. The production deadlines were missed in September and December last year, as well as in February this year.
Earlier, the company had said the first LNG train, the liquefaction unit, would cost about $1 billion.
(Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi)
Related Knowledge Center: Liquefied natural gas
Driven by plentiful natural gas produced from shale plays, the United States began exporting liquefied natural gas in 2016 when the Sabine Pass terminal in Louisiana opened and shipped its first cargo. Since then, additional capacity, or trains, have been added to Sabine Pass, and terminals have become operational in Cameron Parish, La.; Hackberry, La.; Cove Point, Md.; and Corpus Christi, Texas. The Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. LNG export capacity will reach 8.9 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) by the end of 2019, making it the third largest in the world, behind Australia and Qatar. The tariff war with China has the potential to impact some final investment decisions for additional terminals in the coming months.