Brazil’s Petrobras has kicked lone bidder Golar Power out of its tender to lease an LNG terminal in the country’s Bahia state.
Petrobras said its tender commission had concluded that Golar Power, a joint venture between Golar LNG and Stonepeak Investment Partners, had a high degree of integrity risk.
The statement comes in the wake of Golar Power chief executive Eduardo Antonello standing down following bribery allegations by federal authorities in Brazil in connection with his earlier work with John Fredriksen’s offshore company Seadrill and its charters with Petrobras.
Tor Olav Troim-controlled Golar Power had been days away from launching an initial public offering in the US under the new name of Hygo Energy Transition when the bribery claims against Antonello were made.
Golar LNG, which has been starting a long-planned process of spinning off its different business arms, has since postponed its Hygo IPO.
It has emerged that Golar Power was the only company to bid on Petrobras' Bahia terminal project in the allotted time frame.
BP Energy, which is part of the partnership building the Porto do Acu power plant, is asking for more time to make an offer and another company is dropping out of the process.
Petrobras said an appeal phase would start but the bid process may need to be closed and a new one opened if no valid offers are entered.
Golar LNG and later Golar Power has been a key mover in Brazil on LNG and gas imports.
The parent company brought in the country’s first two floating storage and regasification units in 2008 and 2009, the second of which the 138,000-cbm Golar Winter (built 2004) remains at the Bahia terminal under its charter with Petrobras which runs until 2024.
This year, Golar Power brought the 1.5GW Porto de Sergipe I thermoelectric power plant onstream in Brazil. The project, which uses the 170,000-cbm FSRU Golar Nanook (built 2017) as its import terminal, is currently the largest natural gas power plant in Latin America.
