17-08-09 Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) has received an operating license for its 14 cmpd LNG regasification terminal at Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro state.
Rio de Janeiro's Environmental Institute Inea issued the license, which also includes approval for a pipeline connecting the terminal and the future compression station in Campos Eliseos, also in Guanabara Bay. The license, which will be valid until July 29, 2014, enables Petrobras subsidiary Transportadora Associada de Gas to operate the facility-Brazil's second after Pecem Port in Ceara state.

Petrobras's Golar Spirit floating regasification plant concluded initial tests at Guanabara Bay in April, with deliveries made via pipeline to two gas-fired power plants in southeast Brazil.
Testing at Guanabara Bay started on Mar. 26, with regasified LNG delivered to the two gas-fired power plants which generated average daily output of 435 MW and 215 MW, respectively. Petrobras last year completed construction and testing of the terminal at Pecem, which has installed capacity to produce 7 mm cmpd of gas.

In July, Royal Dutch Shell delivered the first LNG to Petrobras, supplying 135,000 cm to the Pecem terminal under an agreement signed in 2008.
In May, Maria das Gracas Silva Foster, Petrobras gas and energy director, said the firm plans to complete the construction of its third LNG terminal by January 2013, adding that its capacity could reach 20 mm cmpd of gas.