The departure of the tanker Amur River, which has supplied natural gas to electric generators on Puerto Rico’s north coast in recent weeks, was suspended Monday morning in San Juan Bay. The maneuvers to move out the barge carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) had been scheduled for 9:00 AM, according to a spokesperson for New Fortress Energy (NFE), but harbor pilots decided to halt the process because of weather conditions.
Over the weekend, the departure had been set for 5:30 AM. By midday Monday, no new departure time had been set. 'There is no date. It was requested for this afternoon, but they make the decision,' the spokesperson said. The Amur River’s gas supply ran out on Saturday, and it is preparing to leave with no replacement tanker on the horizon.
NFE supplies the natural gas used by Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA (AEE); PREPA) plants on the north coast through tankers that also serve as anchored fuel storage at its waterfront terminal. Since Saturday, gas-fired units at the San Juan and Palo Seco plants have been burning more expensive diesel: San Juan unit 6 was generating Monday morning at 24.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, and Palo Seco units 3 and 4 at about 20.4 cents, compared with 9 to 15 cents at Costa Sur units 5 and 6 in Guayanilla, per Genera PR data.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered NFE to give other companies access to its facilities to receive natural gas, and Judge Héctor Ramos Vega was to hold a status hearing Monday in the case between PREPA and NFE. The Amur River arrived at the NFE terminal on October 13 after nearly a month of judicial and administrative controversies that left it stranded off Puerto Rico’s coast.