Spanish energy company Enagás has received the first LNG carrier at its El Musel LNG terminal in Gijón ahead of the commercial start-up of the terminal.
According to Enagás, Thenamaris-owned LNG carrier Cool Racer with a capacity of 174,000 m3 arrived at the terminal on 1 July. The ship delivered a commissioning cargo that will be used for final technical tests before the commercial start-up of the terminal.
The El Musel LNG terminal received administrative authorization for its start-up from the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge last month.
To complete the entire process, Enagás needs to obtain the Certificate of Final Start-up from the Industry and Energy Department of the Government Delegation in the Principality of Asturias, which will be issued once the technical tests of the terminal have been completed.
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Video source: Enagás The LNG terminal operator also noted that 30 June was the deadline for shippers to show their interest in the binding phase of the process, which will end in July with the allocation of long-term logistics services, and operations are scheduled to start with the arrival at the terminal of the first commercial LNG carrier in the coming weeks, once the terminal’s technical tests are completed.
The Gijón terminal is expected to contribute up to 8 bcm of LNG capacity per year to the security of the European energy supply and will allow the docking of ships of between 50,000 and 266,000 m3. The plant has two tanks with 150,000 m3 of LNG storage capacity, two tanker loading bays with a capacity to load a maximum of 9 GWh/d and a maximum emission capacity of 800,000 Nm 3/h.
On 28 February, Enagás and Reganosa signed an agreement by which Enagás acquired a network of 130 km of natural gas pipelines from Reganosa and in return, Reganosa purchased a 25% stake in the El Musel terminal.
This operation will enable the companies to take advantage of their synergies and work together on the services offered by the terminal and on new possibilities for collaboration to strengthen the security of supply and advance the decarbonisation targets of Spain and Europe, Enagás said.
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