Excelerate expects insurance to cover any LNG damage from Melissa
Published:Friday | November 14, 2025 | 12:06 AM
Excelerate Energy, which recently purchased New Fortress’ holdings in Jamaica, indicates that damage to LNG assets caused by Hurricane Melissa would be covered by insurance, while maintaining a strong financial outlook.
“I want to reassure our stakeholders that we have comprehensive insurance coverage for adverse weather events like this,” said Steven Kobos, president of Excelerate, during an investor briefing on November 6.
“Combined with our take-or-pay business model, we are confident that financial impacts from Hurricane Melissa will be limited.”
Kobos said the company’s summer maintenance investments in Jamaica — including black start generators and reinforced sea walls — helped the LNG and power infrastructure withstand the storm. He described the upgrades as part of bringing the assets up to Excelerate’s operational standards and praised the local team for implementing safeguards.
“So I’m going to salute them,” he said.
Ahead of Hurricane Melissa making landfall on October 28, Excelerate’s Jamaican teams secured critical systems and onshore operations. Despite severe conditions in Montego Bay, the infrastructure remained intact, enabling a rapid recovery.
The Floating Storage Regasification Unit returned to Old Harbour on October 30, with regasification resuming the next day. The Clarendon CHP plant restarted on October 31, and by November 1 the Montego Bay LNG terminal was fully operational.
Deliveries to small-scale customers resumed shortly after, supported by coordinated efforts to clear access routes and restore supply chains, the company said.
Excelerate executives did not disclose a damage estimate, but they expect limited financial impact due to insurance coverage and timely restoration of operations. Spending on maintenance for 2025 is still projected between US$65 million and US$75 million for the entire group, with committed growth capital ranging from US$95 million to US$105 million.
Additionally, Excelerate raised its full-year 2025 guidance, slightly, for adjusted core earnings, or EBITDA, which is now expected to range between US$435 million and US$450 million, inclusive of estimated fourth-quarter financial impacts in Jamaica. The company reported adjusted net income of US$57 million in the third quarter, a
US$10-million increase from the second quarter. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was US$129 million.
The Jamaica assets were acquired from New Fortress Energy this year for about US$1 billion, and contributed to Excelerate’s third-quarter gains. Kobos said reliability exceeded 99.8 per cent across the platform, while describing Jamaica as a “proof of concept” for scalable energy solutions across the world.
“I haven’t been saying we only want to scale and grow the Caribbean. I mean this is a global company, and we want to do this all over the world,” he said, in response to a question about expanding in the Caribbean.