The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A LIQUEFIED natural gas (LNG) supply hub, featuring a joint venture investment “north of $200m” and the potential to create up to 100 jobs, was yesterday hailed as “putting The Bahamas on the map as a strategic global energy corridor”.

Greg Buffington, chief executive of Domicisle LNG, told Tribune Business its partnership with two international energy operators will help slash fuel costs by 40-50 percent for the Family Island power producers playing a key role in the Government’s electricity sector reforms as early as the 2027 first half.

Speaking as Bahamas-based Domicisle unveiled its tie-up with Excelerate Energy, a Texas-headquartered LNG and power infrastructure provider, plus Axpo, a Swiss energy producer and trader, he said the arrangement will act as a “springboard” for the Bahamian economy and other islands in the wider Caribbean by offering a source of cheaper, reliable and cleaner fuel supply.

Domicisle and Axpo, which have teamed to create their own AxDo Bahamas joint venture, yesterday unveiled an 11-year agreement to purchase up to 16 trillion British thermal units (TBtu) of LNG from Excelerate on an annual basis. And the deal provides the rationale, and commercial viability, for the Texan company to create an offshore LNG terminal and distribution terminal near Grand Bahama that is targeting 2028 for its operational launch.

Mr Buffington, the original founder of Carib Energy, told this newspaper that Domicisle LNG is a “sister company” of Island Power Producers (IPP), the entity that raised close to $180m to construct the LNG-fuelled power plant currently under development at Arawak Cay. The plant will supply up to 70 mega watts (MW) of shore power to ships docked at Nassau Cruise Port, and IPP has “some ownership” in Domicisle LNG.

The latter will manage LNG sourced via its AxDo joint venture, and purchased from Excelerate, and then distribute this to the Family Island independent power producers (IPPs), such as EA Energy on Abaco and Eleuthera, which have been contracted to provide Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) with electricity generated from this fuel and solar energy.

Mr Buffington revealed that Arawak Cay storage capacity is set to double with five more LNG tanks set to arrive on Thanksgiving Day in three weeks’ time, adding to the five already in place. The facility has room for a further five tanks, which would take the total to 15, with the ability to store 10,000-15,000 cubic metres of LNG.

With the proposed Grand Bahama LNG floating storage hub still awaiting “final permitting and construction timelines”, Mr Buffington explained that - for 2027 - fuel supplies will be sourced from Exclerate’s existing Jamaican facilities in Kingston Harbour. Another Domicisle “sister company”, Onyx Global, will supply the vessels that will transport LNG from IPP’s Arawak Cay property to the Family Islands, while its Axpo partner will handle ship bunkering.

“This has been thought out over the last several years and makes absolute sense for us, the way it’s going to work,” Mr Buffington told Tribune Business of the various partnerships and joint ventures that will form this LNG supply chain for The Bahamas.

He added that The Bahamas had been selected for the venture ahead of other Caribbean islands because it has far more vessel traffic passing through its waters due to its strategic location, sitting astride the main shipping routes between the Panama Canal and the US eastern seaboard, Europe and west Africa, plus the volume of cruise ships visiting Nassau, Freeport and the industry’s private islands.

With new cruise ships, cargo vessels and car transporters increasingly being converted to run on LNG as their primary fuel, Mr Buffington said the existence of such a growing customer base - as well as proximity to assets such as the Freeport Harbour, Freeport Container Port and Grand Bahama Shipyard - all fuelled Grand Bahama’s selection as the location for Excelerate’s offshore terminal to best provide bunkering services.

Estimating that the project involved a combined investment of “north of $200m” between the Island Power Producers, Domicisle and Onyx Global elements, Mr Buffington asserted: “The Bahamas is first. Nobody else has the traffic, with cruise ships or cargo ships, that The Bahamas has because of Freeport and Nassau; with Nassau being the largest cruise port in the world. There’s nobody like that.

“This is truly a business that is going to springboard The Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean. We are already getting calls from elsewhere saying: ‘Can’t you do this in other parts of the Caribbean?’ We’ve had people asking whether we can move ISO containers and gas to islands outside The Bahamas. Two calls today.

“But I tell people: ‘The Bahamas first’. When that is up and running smoothly, we can look at other ventures. It will not put The Bahamas on the map; it has always been on the map, but it puts The Bahamas on the map as a strategic energy corridor in the world. It’s great.”

Mr Buffington affirmed that Domicisle will fill and distribute LNG, contained in the same ISO tanks, from Island Power Producers’ facility on the southern side of Arawak Cay to Family Island energy providers starting from March 2027 when EA Energy’s Abaco plant is expected to be commissioned. He reaffirmed that Axpo’s role in their joint venture will be to “handle the bunkering of cruise ships” and deliver fuel to Arawak Cay.

“They already have a ship doing bunkering in Roatan (Honduras) and will move it over to The Bahamas in the next three weeks,” Mr Buffington added. “The first five tanks for Island Power Producers were delivered several months ago. The next five tanks are due to arrive in Nassau on Thanksgiving Day. There’s room for 15.

“There’s 10,000-15,000 cubic metres of LNG [storage]. There’s a substantial amount of LNG for all components of the business - for the power and moving LNG to the Family Islands.” Until the planned Grand Bahama offshore LNG terminal comes on line in 2028, Mr Buffington said Axpo will use its 7,500 cubic metre vessel to fetch LNG from Excelerate’s Kingston facility and transport it to The Bahamas.

“They play a huge part in the whole supply chain. We couldn’t have done this without them,” Mr Buffington added. “It’s multi-faceted. I guess first and foremost, the most common thing, is that it’s going to bring a lower cost fuel for the new power producers in the Family Islands, and they will no longer be paying the price of diesel because LNG is generally 40-50 percent cheaper than the price of diesel.

“It will be substantially cleaner for the environment in the Family Islands and, of course, when Island Power Producers turns on their power to the cruise port there will no longer be cruise ships burning diesel in Nassau harbour. It’s going to be much cheaper fuel and, second to that, all of this business is going to make The Bahamas an extremely important bunkering hub for the cruise industry and cargo industry.

“It’s sitting between Europe and the Panama Canal on major shipping routes. New cruise ships, cargo ships and car transporters are LNG fitted. It will bring jobs and a boost in the economy in making The Bahamas an extremely important country in the energy field in the Caribbean,” the Domicisle chief continued.

“It’s going to take away business, to be honest with you, from south Florida. There’s not enough bunkering ships under the Jones Act in the US. They can’t have enough ships there. The cruise ships, because of their private islands and ports, when the people are off the ship, will bunker there.”

Mr Buffington said that, when he headed Crowley Maritime’s Caribbean LNG operations after it acquired Carib Energy, the fuel’s introduction to Puerto Rico “realy changed the landscape” on how the region selected and used fuel sources while helping to cut down on diesel burning.

He added that, between the AxDo joint venture and Island Power Producers, the planned LNG supply chain will likely create between “50 to 100 additional jobs in the marketplace as we go down the road and there could be more things”. Mr Buffington said they will seek to maximise Bahamian employment and provide training for locals where necessary.

“We start doing bunkering at the end of the month off Grand Bahama,” he revealed. “Onyx Global, our sister company, has also acquired the ships. The first one will arrive in the next few weeks, and the bunker barge is going to be arriving. Everything is on route and will be ready for all the business.”

Excelerate, in a statement, said its AxDo partner was only established in October 2026 “to conduct small-scale LNG and bunkering operations in the region. It will become an “anchor customer” for its planned offshore LNG storage and distribution terminal near Grand Bahama.

“The combination of AxDo’s shipping and bunkering expertise with Excelerate’s LNG infrastructure and supply capabilities is intended to help meet growing LNG demand across The Bahamas and the broader Caribbean,” it added.

Verona Carter, Excelerate’s vice-president and general manager for the Caribbean, told Tribune Business in a written response: “The planned Bahamas LNG hub is part of Excelerate's broader Caribbean growth strategy and is intended to support growing LNG demand in The Bahamas and across the region. 

“Grand Bahama is strategically located along one of the Caribbean's busiest maritime corridors, positioning the planned hub to support marine bunkering, power generation and regional LNG distribution.

“The project also builds on Excelerate's existing LNG infrastructure and logistics capabilities in the Caribbean, including the Jamaica platform, which comprises the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and associated LNG supply and logistics network that have supported the country's transition to natural gas over the past decade,” she added.

“The planned Bahamas LNG hub is intended to leverage similar regional capabilities to enhance LNG accessibility and supply flexibility across the Caribbean.  The 11-year supply agreement with AxDo Bahamas provides an important commercial foundation for the project, with AxDo serving as an anchor customer and providing for deliveries of up to 16 TBtu of LNG annually.”

Internet research by Tribune Business shows Domicisle’s Board of Directors features Michael Maura, the Nassau Cruise Port chief executive and Arawak Port Development Company (APD) chairman; Anthony Ferguson, president of CFAL, which raised the financing for Island Power Producers; and George Mosko, president of Island Site Development (ISD).

Domicisle’s focus was said to be on LNG transportation and distribution via the supply of ISO tanks; LNG bunkering for cruise and cargo vessels; and LNG “gas to power”.