LNG

Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and terminals operator, said the El Musel liquefied natural gas re-loading facility in Northwest Spain designated to supply the European Union has awarded the services contracts to utility Endesa after a tender process.

Endesa is the largest Spanish electric utility while being a majority-owned subsidiary of the Italian utility group Enel.

Enagás said the award to Endesa of logistics services for the El Musel terminal at the Port of Gijón on the Bay of Biscay followed a capacity allocation process.

“The open season had aroused strong interest among trading companies. In total, 13 were received between June 5 and 30, the period during which this last part of the process was developed,” explained Enagás.

“The logistics services offered for this infrastructure are LNG unloading, storage and loading operations,” Enagás said.

Regulated régime

“Within the regulated access regime, the El Musel plant contemplates a minimum regasification for the exact management of the terminal, as well as the tanker-loading service,” it added.

Enagás has re-activated the existing El Musel terminal to meet growing LNG needs in the EU after the closure of Russian pipeline gas supplies and a US commissioning cargo was delivered recently by the 174,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Cool Racer”.

The Spanish terminal will contribute up to 8 billion cubic metres of additional LNG to Europe’s supply when commercial operations start.

El Musel will specialise in the unloading of LNG carriers from various producing countries and the rapid re-loading of ships for different European destinations.

The terminal berthing can accommodate the largest vessels and it has two storage tanks each with capacity of 150,000 cubic metres.

The re-opening of El Musel is part of the Spanish Government’s “More Energy Security Plan” and will add to Spain’s role as an energy hub for Europe as the nation also receives pipeline gas imports from Algeria.

Enagás operates six other LNG regasification terminals on mainland Spain.

GasLog Ltd., the LNG carrier fleet owner with 20 vessels and with another 15 ships held by its US affiliate GasLog Partners, has launched its latest carrier at the South Korean Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard.

The carrier named “GasLog Georgetown” was expected to be delivered for service by late October 2020.

The vessel has capacity of 180,000 cubic metres and will also feature WinGD’s low-pressure gas X-DF propulsion.

The X-DF engines are able to operate both on natural gas or diesel fuel.

GasLog took delivery of two newbuilds in 2019 and signed long-term charters with two new customers, JERA Co. Inc. of Japan and the Spanish utility, Endesa SA.

GasLog, which was previously based in Monaco now has its headquarters in the Greek port of Piraeus, has a total fleet of 35 vessels, with 28 carriers on the water and seven on order.

The company relocated senior management and more of its employees to the Piraeus office to improve efficiency and to reduce overheads.

GasLog reported annual and fourth-quarter losses in February 2020 of $119.9 million versus a profit of $30.3M in the same quarter of 2018.

For the year, GasLog’s losses came to $114.6M compared with a profit of $126.4M in 2018.

Annual revenues rose to $668.8M from $618.3M in the previous year, while fourth-quarter revenues slipped to $182.2M from $188.6M in the prior-year quarter.