Jamaica’s liquefied natural gas import terminal developed and operated New Fortress Energy off the coast of Old Harbour Bay, in St. Catherine has been officially unveiled over the weekend.
The 125,000-cbm FSRU Golar Freeze that will serve a 15-year charter for New Fortress Energy as an import facility supplying new gas-fired power plants, has been positioned 3.6 miles out at sea.
Golar Freeze, owned by the Nasdaq-listed Golar LNG Partners, a limited partnership formed by Golar LNG, was previously converted into an FSRU from an LNG carrier and has a 4.9 billion cubic meters per year regasification capacity.
Speaking at the occasion of unveiling the facility, Jamaica’s prime minister Andrew Holness noted that this latest introduction of LNG supply in the country is in line with Jamaica’s energy policy, which calls for the development of its energy resource potential to enhance international competitiveness and energy security, whilst reducing carbon footprint.
The terminal, which is the first of its kind in the Caribbean, will provide fuel to several facilities, including the Jamaica Public Service’s (JPS) soon-to-be-completed 190-megawatt power plant in Old Harbour, through natural gas pipelines, prime minister’s statement reads.
Holness noted that already, New Fortress Energy is supplying LNG to the University of the West Indies (UWI) and Red Stripe.
The terminal is also providing LNG for Caribbean Products, Appleton, IGL Limited, CB Group, Clarendon Distillers, Wisynco and Seprod.
New Fortress has invested close to$1 billion to bring the LNG project to its current stage.
Prime minister pointed out that there are also plans to supply the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) with the chilled fuel, noting that in the near future Jamaican buses could run on LNG.