LNG

Oct 4 (LNGJ) - Three cargoes from Qatar, the United States and Trinidad are heading for import terminals in the UK, the Netherlands and Belgium in the next week, according to shipping data. The Q-Max vessel “Mozah” with 261,990 cubic metres of capacity is due to unload a cargo on October 7 at the South Hook terminal at the port of Milford Haven. The shipment was loaded on September 13 at Ras Laffan.

   The carrier “Castillo De Caldelas” with capacity of 176,300 cubic metres will discharge a shipment on October 10 at the Belgian terminal at Zeebrugge. The volumes were lifted on September 26 from the Corpus Christi plant in Texas. The vessel “Cool Explorer” with 160,000 cubic metres of capacity is due on October 9 at the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam. The vessel lifted the cargo on September 26 from the Point Fortin plant in Trinidad. 

July 21 (LNG) - Two LNG cargoes are heading for the Netherlands. The “LNG Schneeweisschen” with 180,125 cubic metres of capacity is scheduled to discharge a US cargo on July 22 at the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam. The volumes were lifted on July 10 from the Freeport plant in Texas, according to shipping data.

   The “Rioja Knutsen” with 176,300 cubic metres of capacity is scheduled to deliver a shipment to the Gate facility on July 23. The cargo was loaded on July 10 at the Corpus Christi export facility in Texas.

VINCI, the French engineering and construction company, said one of its subsidiaries signed a contract to design and build Germany's first onshore liquefied natural gas import terminal at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River south of Hamburg.

The company, based in the Paris suburbs, said the engineering, procurement and construction contract included building the facilities with two storage tanks.

VINCI said the work involved a strategic project for Germany's energy independence and would be carried out by its subsidiary Cobra IS in a consortium with the Spanish LNG terminal specialist Sener Energy Engineering.

“It will have a production capacity of 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year and will have two 165,000 cubic metres storage tanks,” explained VINCI.

“The terminal will be equipped with auxiliary operating systems, infrastructure and other buildings,” it added.

VINCI said the customer was German LNG Terminal GmbH and the terminal when completed would enable Germany to import LNG to be unloaded and injected into the grid system or transported by lorries for off-grid usage or for transportation fuel.

Target date

“The installation is to be delivered in 2026, with the works lasting 42 months,” said VINCI.

The statement added that Cobra IS and Sener had much experience in projects of this kind.

Their combined previous LNG contracts in Europe alone have included terminals at Sagunto in Eastern Spain and Bahía de Bizkaia in the Spanish northwest, as well as the Gate terminal in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Dunkirk LNG in France and the Zeebrugge facility in Belgium.

The German LNG Terminal company was accorded full planning permission in May 2022 by the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck.

Analysts said that due to its location and the industrial connections, the Brunsbüttel site has good prerequisites for developing into an import hub for the northern German economy in the state of Schleswig-Holstein.

The Brunsbüttel terminal has additionally signed a preliminary accord with Shell to acquire cargo volumes.

The German Government, though the state investment body Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), replaced Dutch storage company Royal Vopak in the shareholder line-up, though the dominant company is still the Dutch utility Gasunie.

The German utility RWE, based in Essen, has also signed an accord to join the Brunsbüttel project.

The development company has said it believed that LNG would become even “greener” in the future and would be a great transition fuel for Germany. 

Sept 23 (LNGJ) – Dutch and UK terminals are receiving shipments from the US Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana in the coming week. The 162,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Maria Energy” was scheduled to discharge its US cargo on September 24 at the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam. It was lifted from the Cheniere Energy Sabine Pass facility on September 8.

   The 173,400 cubic metres capacity carrier “Ribera del Duero Knutsen” is scheduled to unload its Sabine Pass shipment on September 29 at the UK Dragon LNG terminal at the Port of Milford Haven, according to shipping data. The cargo was lifted from Sabine Pass on September 16.

The Port of Rotterdam, host to the Dutch Gate LNG import terminal in the Maasvlakte area, reported “significant changes” in the first half of 2022 because of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine with incoming LNG shipments increasing by over 55 percent and coal imports also surging.

The Port said in its first-half report that total cargoes increased by 0.8 percent to 233.5 million tonnes compared with 231.6MT in the first six months of 2021.

Revenues at the port, which is owned by the City of Rotterdam and the Government of the Netherlands, increased by 6.3 percent to €412 million ($420M) versus €387.6M in the first half of 2021.

The increase in port dues accounted for €16.1M of the revenues and this rise was primarily attributable to a higher number of vessels, resulting in a higher price per throughput tonne.

“In many segments, the war in Ukraine led to significant changes. For example, imports of both LNG and coal rose very sharply as an alternative to reduced European imports of Russian gas by pipeline,” said the report.

The Port said it handled 5.32 million tonnes of incoming LNG from January through June compared with 3.41MT in the first half of 2021, a rise of 55.9 percent.

Dutch LNG imports for all of 2021 amounted to 5.64MT, an increase of 5.8 percent over the previous year.

Coal imports

Rotterdam’s coal imports in the first half jumped 31.9 percent to 14.05MT from 10.65MT in the prior-year period.

“There is very strong demand for LNG as an alternative to the natural gas entering Europe by pipeline from Russia,” said the Port.

“The throughput of crude oil increased, with oil products falling off. Throughput of iron ore, agricultural bulk and containers was lower than in the same period last year,” it added.

LNG shipments come under the Port’s Liquid Bulk segment and first-half traffic of liquid bulk rose by 4.6 percent.

“The 4.3 percent increase in crude oil was mainly caused by the flow of Russian oil through Rotterdam to India in particular. Refineries in Northwest Europe are switching to non-Russian oil, with the result that Russian oil is finding its way to other markets,” the Port explained.

“It was possible to see a shift in the origin of imports of coal, crude oil, oil products and LNG in the second quarter. Companies are sourcing these energy carriers and raw materials less and less from Russia and purchasing them elsewhere in the world,” said the report.

CEO overview

Allard Castelein, Chief Executive of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, noted that Europe has relied heavily on Russian energy.

“The current geopolitical situation makes Europe very vulnerable. The availability of energy and raw materials at reasonable prices cannot be taken for granted,” said Castelein.

“A positive development is that concrete steps have been taken in recent months to make our energy supply more sustainable and to further our energy independence, particularly through investment decisions to build a large biorefinery,” he added.

“In addition to the vulnerability of the European energy system, nitrogen emissions continue to be a major bottleneck. Several major projects, including the carbon dioxide-capture and storage project Porthos, are being delayed or threatened with delays due to uncertainty and restrictions associated with nitrogen emission,” stated the CEO.

Rotterdam’s Gate LNG terminal started operations in 2011 and is a joint venture between Dutch utility Gasunie and global storage company Royal Dutch Vopak.

Gate Terminal BV, the operating company, said in early July 2022 that annual capacity was now 12 billion cubic metres on a firm basis and in addition 4 Bcm on an interruptible basis will be available in the future.

The terminal company said it had started working on a permit application, regulatory conditions and technical feasibility with the aim of launching an open season on 15th August 2022 to increase the firm annual capacity by 4 Bcm.

Germany’s main onshore liquefied natural gas import terminal project being develop at Brunsbüttel on the Elbe River south of Hamburg has changed leadership as the joint venture progresses and executives express confidence on completing the nation's first LNG facility.

LNG supplier Nauticor, a subsidiary of the Nordic energy company Gasum, has conducted the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation for an LNG-powered product tanker in Germany near the proposed site of the nation’s first LNG import terminal project.

Royal Vopak, the Dutch global storage and terminals company and co-owner of the Gate liquefied natural gas import facility in Rotterdam, has purchased a stake in the floating LNG terminal in the Colombian Caribbean port of Cartagena.

Vopak said it bought 49 percent of Colombian company Sociedad Portuaria el Cayao (SPEC) in Cartagena, owner of the terminal which has been in service since 2016. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

The Dutch company also owns 60 percent of the Mexican Gulf Coast onshore LNG import terminal at Altamira.

The Colombian facility consists of an LNG jetty, onshore infrastructure and 9.2 kilometres of gas pipeline connecting to the national gas grid.

A chartered floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is receiving the LNG and sending the gas to shore. The SPEC company holds long-term supply contracts with three local gas-fired power plants.

The FSRU, the 170,050 cubic metres capacity vessel “Hoegh Grace”, is on charter from Norwegian fleet owner Hoegh LNG.

The majority shareholder in the terminal company will remain the South American utility Promigas with 51 percent.

“We are very much looking forward to this partnership with Promigas and to enter into the growing Colombian LNG market,” said Eelco Hoekstra, Chairman and Chief Executive of Vopak.

“This is another growth step in our LNG portfolio and it fits very well in our ambitions to grow and diversify our service offering in LNG,” added Hoekstra.

Promigas is a private company in the natural gas sector in Latin America with 45​​ years of experience providing access to natural gas.

French container ship company CMA CGM plans to use the Dutch port of Rotterdam as its primary bunkering port when its new LNG-powered fleet of nine vessels start being delivered by Chinese shipyards from 2020.

May 16 (LNGJ) - The 75,000 cubic metres capacity Med-class LNG carrier “Cheikh Bouamama” was unloading a shipment on May 16 at the Fos Cavaou terminal near Marseilles from the Skikda plant in Algeria, operated by Sonatrach. The 210,100 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex carrier “Al Ruwais” is scheduled to deliver a shipment on May 19 to the Montoir-de-Bretagne terminal in Western France from Ras Laffan in Qatar. The 140,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Arctic Discoverer” will deliver a cargo on May 20 to the Dutch Gate terminal in Rotterdam from the Hammerfest plant in Norway, operated by Equinor (formerly Statoil). The 141,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “LNG Adamawa” will deliver a cargo on May 22 to the Huelva terminal in southwest Spain from the Bonny Island export plant in Nigeria. The 215,000 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex vessel “Al Utouriya” will unload a Qatargas shipment on May 24 at the Zeebrugge terminal in Belgium.