NGC looks at opportunities for small-scale LNG to supply markets in Caribbean and South America

In the last few months, the changes in geopolitics and other external factors have put a focus on supplying significant volumes of LNG to Europe. However, it’s equally important to consider the opportunities to supply small volumes of LNG to the Caribbean and parts of central and south America.

Verlier Quan-Vie, Vice President Commercial at The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (NGC), said that opportunities to supply small-scale LNG are tied to the company’s green agenda since this provides an avenue to provide cleaner energy to the region.

At present, most of the Caribbean uses diesel and heavy fuel oils to produce electricity. Using LNG for power can greatly reduce the CO2 footprint of the electricity sector since it is the cleanest of the fossil fuels.

To develop exporting capacity of small-scale LNG, a new facility must be constructed. While a final investment decision has not yet been taken, Quan-Vie said that NGC is in the concept select stage and the intent is to select the final concept and location by the end of Q4 2022.

Quan-Vie said that there were several sites being considered including locations in Pt. Fortin, La Brea and in Pt. Lisas. These sites would have to be able to accommodate the installation of a jetty where small LNG carrier vessels can be loaded. The facility is intended to accommodate vessels with capacities of between 5,000 m3 and 30,000 m3 , she said.

It should be noted that despite T&T’s current export capacity of LNG, the volumes exported are too large for smaller markets especially for those in the Caribbean. The small-scale LNG project can therefore produce smaller volumes which can be exported to the markets within the Caribbean and parts of central and south America including Jamaica, Barbados, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Brazil.

The project, once sanctioned, intends to produce LNG for smaller carrier vessels and ISO containers for export. Quan-Vie indicated that this project would supplement what NGC currently supplies and will open up potential new markets in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Some Caribbean countries already have regassification facilities and receiving terminals for LNG and others have already signalled that they would be developing these types of facilities in the near to short term. In many cases, these types of regassification facilities are tied directly to the electricity power plants.

Quan-Vie said that analysis has shown that LNG, despite the current price increases, is still more competitive than using heavy fuel oil for power. In addition, this also provides significant opportunities to reduce CO2 emissions in the power sector throughout the Caribbean.