Coega FSRU

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Coega FSRU is a cancelled (confirmed) LNG import terminal in South Africa.

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Coega FSRU	Coega IDZ, Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa	-33.802993, 25.69237 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the terminal:

Loading map...

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Project Details

Table 2: Infrastructure details

mtpa = million tonnes per year

Name	Facility type	Status	Capacity	Total terminal capacity	Offshore	Associated infrastructure
Coega FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	–	–	True	–

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
Coega FSRU	import	–	–

Financing

No financing data available.

Table 4: Project timeline

FID = Final Investment Decision, used by some developers to indicate a project will move forward

Name	Facility type	Status	Proposal year	FID year	Construction year	Operating year	Inactive year
Coega FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	2005	–	–	–	2024 (cancelled)

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Owners	Parent companies	Operator
Coega FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	Karpowership [100%]	Karadeniz Holding AŞ	Karpowership

Table 6: Vessel ownership

Name	Facility type	Status	Vessel owners	Vessel operator
Coega FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	Karpowership	Karpowership

Background

In 2005, a project was announced to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminal and a gas-fired power plant in Coega Industrial Development Zone. The project was revitalized in 2015, when the Coega Development Corporation issued a tender notice for an environmental impact assessment for the power plant. The power plant would have 1,000 MW capacity.

As of October 2016, South Africa's Department of Energy was exploring possible bidders to develop, build, and operate the project. The energy produced would be sold to Eskom, South Africa's state-owned power utility. The cost of the entire project would be roughly $2 billion.

The terminal will have an initial capacity of 0.6 mtpa and is expected to begin operations in 2020.

In November 2019, South Africa's Minister of Energy & Mineral Resources, Gwede Mantashe, said at the Africa Oil Week conference in Cape Town that Coega will be the initial home for an LNG import terminal, suggesting that plans for the terminal may still materialize.

In November 2021, South Africa's Central Energy Fund issued a request for information around the development of an independently-managed midstream LNG hub in Coega, including a floating storage and regasification (FSRU) unit.

Karpowership South Africa FSRU Plans

In April 2022, Engineering News reported that Karpowership was showcasing an FSRU vessel in Cape Town, and that it planned to deploy three vessels to Richards Bay, Saldhana Bay, and Coega to generate a total of 1.2 MW of power. Karpowership vessels are designed to regasify LNG and generate power. The power plant attributes of the facility are described on the page for Karpowership Coega power station within the Global Gas Plant Tracker.

In August 2023, Global Energy Monitor's Inside Gas wrote: "Despite two years of delays, Karpowership’s director for South Africa, Mehmet Katmer, has said he is confident of advancing the company’s three floating gas-to-power projects through a third public participation process. The proposals at the ports of Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay, and Ngqura (Coega) that would involve the importing of LNG have so far failed to gain environmental clearance, with NGOs raising concerns over adverse impacts on fishing and marine life. However, Katmer believes that environmental licenses for all three projects could be issued by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment within months, and Karpowership would be ready to implement them before the end of next year. The state-run power utility Eskom has also recently granted the company an extension to access to the South African grid until the end of 2023."

In January 2024, Inside Gas said that Karpowerships projects were "almost dead in the water," after the state-owned power utility Eskom took away the company's grid access rights, as it had not met a December 31 financial close deadline for its three gas-to-power projects proposed at South African ports.

In October 2024, it was confirmed that the Karpowership deal with South Africa was no longer proceeding. Thus, the Coega FSRU, Richards Bay FSRU, and Saldanha Bay FSRU projects were effectively cancelled.

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of LNG terminals, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Gas Infrastructure Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.