Richards Bay FSRU

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

Location

Table 1: Location details

Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Richards Bay FSRU	Richards Bay, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa	-28.81492, 32.048096 (approximate)

The map below shows the approximate location of the terminal:

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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
Richards Bay FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	–	–	True	–

Table 3: Cost

Name	Facility type	Cost	Total known terminal costs
Richards Bay 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
Richards Bay FSRU	import	cancelled (confirmed)	2016	–	–	–	2024 (cancelled)

Ownership

Table 5: Ownership

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

Table 6: Vessel ownership

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

Background

In October 2016 the South Africa DoE, together with Transnet National Ports Authority, said it had completed its 18-month study on the suitability of locating an LNG import terminal at each of the Ports of Ngqura (Coega), Richards Bay and Saldanha Bay in South Africa. The studies showed that Saldanha Bay required substantial work on the port and the infrastructure for a gas plant. Due to this, the DoE said the first phase of the LNG-to-power program would aim to identify, select and enable bidders to develop, finance, construct and operate one gas-fired power generation plant at each of two ports, Coega and Richards Bay. The selected bidders for the two projects would also be responsible for LNG supply, provision of the floating storage and regasification facilities (FSRU), supporting port facilities and gas transmission pipelines.

The terminal would have an initial capacity of 1 mtpa and would begin operations in 2020.

Transnet would lead the development of one project at Richards Bay, called Richards Bay Transnet FSRU. A different plan advanced by Karpowership is described further here.

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 Richards Bay 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 Karpowership's 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, Richards Bay FSRU, Coega 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.