Posted on October 20, 2021
A growing Texas energy supply company has tapped the Port of Port Arthur to be a part of its network of Gulf Coast projects aimed at taking advantage of more market shifts to “greener” fuel.
Stabilis Solutions, a Houston-based energy transition company mainly focused on small-scale delivery of liquid natural gas (LNG), has signed a deal with the port to create a marine vessel fueling facility for LNG by early next year.
The company and the port will spend the next several months preparing dock space capable of shore-to-ship fueling operations, applying for permits and approvals and setting the groundwork for customers to receive their first fuel shipments in Port Arthur.
“POPA looks forward to working with Stabilis on this important development” Port Director and CEO Larry Kelley said. “The partnership with Stabilis will provide added sustainable options for fueling vessels on the Sabine Neches Waterway and another example of our commitment to our community. With significant daily vessel activity for the movement of energy and the products that support the global economy, it makes great sense to consider Port Arthur as a location for this initiative.”
Stabilis has been leveraging ports across the Gulf Coast in a series of agreements over the past few months to increase the amount of LNG from its liquefaction facility around George West it can deliver to shipping hubs in Texas and Louisiana.
This marks the fifth agreement this year, and follows announcements of fueling sites coming to Port Isabel in Cameron County and Cameron Parish Port in Louisiana just two months ago.
It has been building on momentum from deals with the Port of Corpus Christi and the Port of Galveston made earlier in the year, and the acquisition of a production facility in Port Allen, Louisiana that increased its LNG production capacity by 30%.
Stabilis has been steadily growing its reach as a powerhouse among the small-scale energy providers, delivering more than 250 million gallons of LNG in its past 16 years of operation.
It’s reach now includes deliveries across all of North America.
“We see the ship-to-shore LNG fueling model as a key first step to attracting LNG powered vessel traffic to the Gulf Coast and is an exciting opportunity for Stabilis,” President and CEO Westy Ballard said in a statement.
Ballard recently joined the company and its board near the end of August.
In August, Natural Gas Intelligence reported that the company told investors it was making aggressive moves to build its Gulf Coast network fueling facilities that it believes will see exponential growth as more shipping companies work to reduce their carbon footprints.
“We’re aggressively tracking the large and high-growth marine LNG market with both port and customer relationships,” James Reddinger, CEO of Stabilis at the time, said in the company’s second quarter earnings call in August. “We’re very bullish on this market segment. We believe that our market leadership and shore-to-ship bunkering will translate into large, long-term customer relationships that will support our entry into more profitable LNG bunkering investments.”
Texas’ Gulf Coast, and specifically Port Arthur, has continued to see interest from companies focused on growing LNG.
The region is currently host to a gigantic expansion and transition of the Golden Pass LNG export terminal in the Port Arthur community of Sabine Pass, and is awaiting the final investment decision for Sempra Energy’s Port Arthur LNG terminal just up the road.
jacob.dick@beaumontenterprise.com
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