Excelerate bullish on Jamaica

ONE year after it shelled out just over US$1 billion to acquire New Fortress Energy assets in Jamaica, in the process becoming the country’s supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Excelerate Energy remains gung-ho on the island and is ready to invest even more.

In an exclusive interview with the Jamaica Observer to mark the first anniversary of its presence in the island, president and chief executive officer of Excelerate Energy Steven Kobos announced the international firm’s determination to establish an even bigger footprint here.

“We do want to invest more. We do want to deploy more capital in Jamaica,” declared Kobos.

“Now, business around the world, it’s always a competition for capital. Where do you want to invest? But I like what I see about Jamaica after a year. I like the environment for foreign direct investment. I like the predictability and the stability that we see here, and I haven’t been shy about telling Wall Street that we are prepared to deploy more capital in Jamaica,” added Kobos.

He told the Sunday Observer that while the take-up on LNG has not been as strong as expected, the company is not disappointed as it is confident that this will come.

“I think we’re getting there. I think we proved reliability. I mean, when I went around Montego Bay, [St James] two weeks after Hurricane Melissa [which hit Jamaica on October 28, 2025], I saw that the hotels where we provided off-grid power had never lost their power, had maintained their electricity, their lights, their air conditioning, and it made it easier for them to withstand the damage that they were confronting that they had that reliability.

“So I think that was a case study for the reliability of the power that we can provide, the value that we can provide. And as I said… just the fact that we could move the FSRU [floating storage and regasification unit] improved the long-term resiliency of that important facility,” said Kobos.

Excelerate operates its FSRU in Old Harbour Bay on the south-eastern coast of Jamaica, approximately 3.6 miles offshore.

The FSRU was moved shortly before Melissa struck but was back in place, flowing LNG, some three to four days after the Category 5 storm passed — and Kobos is confident that the company could have pumped gas even sooner.

According to Kobos, that was a case study of the reliability that Accelerate brings to Jamaica and the value that it provides, which will lead to an even greater take-up of LNG locally.

“It is going to come. It comes with the expansion of the economy, and we want to be part of that for the long haul. We’re not in this for six months… we are in this for a very long time,” declared Kobos.

The Excelerate CEO said he remains as upbeat for the prospects of the Jamaican economy as he was one year ago when the company started doing business on the island.

“I mean, lots of natural advantages; well-educated, hard-working human capital; a favourable investment climate… We go to markets all over the world [and] there are markets that we don’t seek to enter. We are very specific about those markets that we enter,” Kobos said.

He underscored that before entering a new market Excelerate checks if there is a demand for its products and also if demand will grow over time.

“But you also need to be welcomed, you need to be treated fairly, and you just need to see that it’s a good place where … you can deploy more capital. It’s not everywhere that I would say we wish to deploy more capital there. It’s going to come,” added Kobos.

He pointed out that Excelerate’s mandate is to provide a reliable supply of energy to countries around the world as this drives everything, including development and quality of life for the citizens.

“Reliable energy is almost like water is to a body. It’s something that the larger economy and nation has to have. And so when you come into a role like that, it’s a matter of trust for us, and we have people in markets who count on us all over the world, and I’m just really pleased to include Jamaica with that,” he said.

“We have great people in the country, human talent; I have yet to meet my first unfriendly Jamaican. You know, it’s a great place, it’s great to interact with these people that make up this country, and we’re pleased with the investment decision,” added Kobos.

He said Excelerate sees itself being a safe and reliable partner for Jamaica over the next many years because, “at the end of the day, we think… business is pretty simple. You need to have amazing operational performance — and we have a great operations team in Jamaica — do what you say you will do, and take responsibility for your actions. That’s business. That’s all you have to do, and then you’re going to succeed.

“We believe in providing the services that people want you to provide, so we are happy to work with the Government, happy to work with stakeholders, and make the right sorts of investments that will be best needed,” Kobos said as he pointed out that Excelerate’s additional investment in Jamaica could come in several forms.

“That could be selling more natural gas to other people on the island, making more of it available to others on the island; that could be power generation; that could be natural gas pipelines, but, as I said, the reality is just whatever is most needed, that’s what we will want to provide,” added Kobos as he underscored that the additional investment will be in the areas the company operates.

“But we are anxious to deploy more… We are working on and do have ambition to make Jamaica into more of a regional hub… if Jamaica is the hub, working on different spokes out from the hub to distribute LNG around the Caribbean, and I would hope that in a year we will be advancing some of those small-scale distributions from our Jamaican hub. That’s the goal,” Kobos added.