The Zeebrugge LNG terminal operator Fluxys said that the Yenisei River vessel loaded LNG from the newly commissioned LNG storage tank in late December.
The loading operation marked the start of the long-term contract for transshipments concluded in 2015 with Yamal Trade, a unit of the Novatek-operated Yamal LNG project.
A fifth LNG storage tank with a capacity of 180 000 cubic meters of LNG and associated process facilities were built at the Zeebrugge LNG terminal in view of the long-term contract with Yamal Trade, Fluxys said in its statement.
The additional capacity allows transshipments between icebreaker LNG vessels coming from the Yamal LNG terminal and conventional LNG carriers without the two having to be docked simultaneously.
Construction of the new facilities started in mid-2015 and early December 2019 they were ready for test operations.
Under the 20-year contract with Yamal Trade up to 8 million tonnes of LNG can be transshipped at the Zeebrugge terminal annually.
This corresponds to potentially an additional traffic of 214 LNG carriers per year. Ahead of the new storage capacity becoming available, the terminal already performed an array of direct transshipments between two simultaneously docked ships since May 2018.
In an earlier statement , Lev Feodosyev , Novatek’s first deputy chairman, “The use of a dedicated LNG tank increases the reliability of LNG supplies from Yamal LNG under long-term offtake agreements, as well as increases the number of LNG cargos transshipped in Europe for delivery to other markets, and, primarily, the fastest-growing markets in Asia.”