Norwegian shipowner BW LNG has placed an order at Singapore's Keppel shipyard for the conversion of an LNG carrier to a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).
The FSRU will be used at the Acajutla LNG-to-power project in El Salvador, which is scheduled to begin operations by the end of 2021, with the FSRU installed in the second half of the year.
El Salvador firm Energia del Pacifico (EDP) closed the financing for the import project in December. The FSRU will supply a 378MW gas-fired plant, which EDP expects to meet around 30pc of the country's power demand. The power plant will also be connected to the Central American electrical interconnection system, which links the power transmission grids of six central American countries.
BW LNG has not disclosed which carrier Keppel will convert to an FSRU, but the capacity is expected to be around 137,000m³. The owner has five carriers with similar capacities that may be used for the conversion.
The shipowner also has four FSRUs, although one — the 174,000m³ BW Paris — is currently operating as a carrier.
The conversion order will be Keppel's fifth so far. Conversions of existing, typically smaller steam turbine carriers have become more common for smaller import projects, while orders for newbuild FSRUs are generally reserved for projects with a greater planned import capacity. There are five FSRUs on the global orderbook — with capacities of 174,000-180,000m³ — at least three of which are tied to planned import projects.
