The 137,000m³ BW Tatiana floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) has left Singapore's Keppel Tuas shipyard, vessel owner BW LNG said.
The FSRU is sailing to El Salvador, where it is to be installed at the country's planned Acajutla LNG-to-power project, which is scheduled to come on line by July 2022. Project operator Energia del Pacifico (EDP) previously expected the project to come on line by the end of 2021, but announced earlier this year that the commissioning had been delayed.
The unit, which has a sendout capacity of 280mn ft³/d (7.92mn m³/d), is expected to meet some 30pc of the country's power demand, according to BW LNG. This suggests that the project could import up to 2.25mn t/yr. But imports are likely to be limited by the capacity of the connected power plant. The gas-fired plant will have a 378MW capacity, implying that it could only burn up to 361,000 t/yr of LNG, assuming it runs at an average 60pc efficiency rate.
The Inter-American Development Bank — a financial backer for the project — noted that Acajutla is expected to receive six cargoes annually. This would equate to around 432,000 t/yr, based on a standard 160,000m³ LNG cargo size.
Shell has a long-term agreement with EDP to supply 500,000 t/yr to the project, although this would likely be needed to be distributed over more than six annual deliveries, given the low prevalence of LNG carriers that have capacities of 83,000t (185,000m³). The few carriers that are larger than this are almost all under long-term charters to load from Qatar's Ras Laffan liquefaction complex.
