Investment bank Morgan Stanley's LNG trading arm has snapped up a mid-size vessel controlled by Teekay to act as a shuttle ship for Argentina's second import facility. Morgan Stanley officials confirmed the company has chartered the 89,900-cbm Arctic Spirit (built 1993)until 2014.
The LNG carrier is expected to be used for the next six months to ship cargoes to the upcoming Puerto Escobar facility 30 miles from capital Buenos Aires. It is due to be commissioned next month. Rate details have yet to emerge.
Earlier this month Morgan Stanley scooped a deal to supply the bulk of the cargoes required by Argentina's state energy company Enarsa. The trader is expected to provide 14 shipments, which are likely to be sourced from Nigeria and Trinidad.
Spain's Stream is understood to be supplying the remaining 30% of the required volumes. Arctic Spirit will be used to ship cargoes to Excelerate Energy's 150,900-cbm regasification vessel Exemplar (built 2010), which has been chartered to act as the import terminal. The vessel is able to send out up to 500 million cubic feet per day of vaporised gas.
While the regas unit can be put in place, the waters of the Parana River where it will be moored are too shallow to allow for a fully laden LNG carrier to approach.
Sources at Enarsa have indicated they expect to use a mix of partly lightered cargoes on conventional vessels, full smaller ships such as Arctic Spirit, and cargoes that have been partially discharged at Argentina's more southerly Bahia Blanca GasPort.
The first two solutions are the more likely, they commented.
The ice-class winterised Arctic Spirit is one of the few LNG carriers worldwide to have been built with the SPB-type containment system. This eliminates sloshing and allows for any tankfilling level, which could be advantageous when conducting ship-to-ship transfer operations.
Fuente: LNG UNLIMITED
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