LNG

May 28 (LNGJ) - Two LNG carriers carrying Russian cargoes have entered the North Sea to discharge volumes at West European regasification terminals. The tanker “Nikolay Yevgenov” with 172,600 cubic metres of capacity lifted a cargo on May 23 from the Russian Yamal plant in Northern Siberia.

   The Cypriot-flagged vessel “Fedor Litke” with 177,000 cubic metres capacity was also heading for a regional terminal with a shipment loaded on May 24 at the Yamal facility, according to shipping data. A third carrier, the 172,000 cubic metres capacity “Yakov Gakkel”, was heading back to the Russian LNG export plant at Sabetta after delivering a cargo to the French import terminal in Dunkirk.

French major and leading European LNG sector participant TotalEnergies has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of US firm Talos Low Carbon and its carbon-capture and storage projects and has also bought some Texas shale-gas assets.

The European Union reduced imports of pipeline gas from Russia five-fold in 2023, while its purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas cargoes increased by around 38 percent from the Novatek-operated Yamal export plant in Northern Siberia and could rise further in 2024.

Höegh LNG Holdings Ltd, the owner and operator of 13 LNG vessels including floating storage and regasification (FSRU) units, said the outlook for the FSRU market was expected to remain strong as another terminal plan progressed for the Netherlands in the port of Vlissingen.

Elengy, the operator of three terminals in Western and Southern France at Montoir-de-Bretagne, Fos Tonkin and Fos Cavaou has increased the LNG trucking capabilities at the Fos Cavaou facility located west of the Mediterranean port of Marseille.

The Managing Director of Elengy, Nelly Nicoli, inaugurated the two new tank-truck loading bays at the Fos Cavaou terminal.

The LNG fuel expansion event was also attended by René Raimondi, Mayor of the town of Fos, Hervé Martel, President of the Grand Port Maritime de Marseilles, and Régis Passerieux, Sub-Prefect of the district of Istres.

The new loading bays at Fos Cavaou now give the West Med terminal four bays with the capacity to offer 22,000 slots a year.

“LNG constitutes an immediate and effective response to the challenges of the energy transition in the road transport sector by reducing carbon-dioxide emissions,” stated Nicoli.

Commissioning

“With this commissioning, Elengy will continue with the development of its infrastructure to provide reliable and sustainable access to LNG for road transport,” added Nicoli.

“The two new bays of Fos Cavaou represented an investment of €10 million ($10.8M),” she stated.

Elengy has been expanding LNG truck-loading bays since 2013 at the Montoir-de-Bretagne and the Fos Tokin and Fos Cavaou terminals.

Over the past 10 years around 70,000 trucks have been loaded with LNG for the gradually expanding fuel market in the European Union.

Ship movements

Elengy’s three regulated terminals offer market flexibility for the unloading or loading of any type of LNG carriers as well as trans-shipment services.

The company’s LNG carrier traffic amounts to around 330 ships per annum at the three facilities.

Elengy added that during 2023 LNG had also been loaded into ISO containers at the Fos terminals for transportation by rail.

The company said it was also developing its services by investing in the development of bio-LNG made from waste to reduce the environmental footprint of the fuel.

Oct 26 (LNGJ) – TotalEnergies said the commissioning was completed on the 145,130 cubic metres capacity vessel “Cape Ann”. The LNG floating storage and regasification unit is deployed as an import facility in the Channel port of Le Havre as the nation's fifth terminal. “The terminal injected its first megawatt-hours of gas into the grid operated by utility GRTgaz using LNG from Norway,” said TotalEnergies. The French major later reported earnings and a 35 percent fall in third-quarter adjusted net income to $6.45 billion from $9.86Bln in the same three months a year ago.

   In the integrated LNG division, the company reiterated offtake contracts in the quarter in Qatar for 3.5 million tonnes per annum for 27 years, the launch of the Rio Grande LNG project in Texas and its securing of a stake in NextDecade and the Texas project with 5.4 MTPA of offtake for 20 years. The average third-quarter LNG price for TotalEnergies was $9.56 per million British thermal units versus $21.51 per MMBtu in the same quarter of 2022.

Svanehøj France, the tank control systems business, has been awarded contracts to update safety systems at the established Dabhol LNG import terminal on the West Coast of India and at the French Fos Cavaou LNG facility located east of Marseilles.

Svanehøj's tanks business has a long and distinguished track record since it was established at the French Channel port of Calais in 1961 under the banner of the UK engineering company Whessoe plc. 

At the time the company equipped its first gas carriers in the 1970s and its first LNG storage tank in 1983. 

It was also the first company to provide a level, temperature, and density (LTD) gauge for floating storage and it was part of Finland’s Wärtsilä from 2006 until it was acquired by Denmark’s Svanehøj in 2022.

Svanehøj France now develops technologies that enhance the safety of LNG, liquefied petroleum gas and cryogenic and refrigerated storageon sea and land.

Safety and control

“Svanehøj's instrumentation and software solutions are installed to ensure that all hazardous aspects related to liquified gas storage are known and controllable,” the company said.

“The systems proactively measure possible development or creation of stratification by monitoring the tanks. The product range includes tank level and density gauges, temperature transmitters, and control systems that operate accurately under cryogenic conditions,” the company added.

Svanehøj France noted that as time progresses, ageing machinery becomes obsolete, prompting the recognition of the importance of upgrading safety instrumentation. 

In response, the Dabhol terminal owned by the Konkan LNG subsidiary of GAIL India and the Fos Cavaou terminal operated by France’s Elengy, a unit of GRTgaz within the utility and energy group Engie, partnered with Svanehøj France to renew the safety instrumentation for a combined three LNG tanks.

“We are reconnecting with liquefied gas terminals worldwide and have learnt that some could be in better shape,” said Simon Dufour, an executive at Svanehøj France.

“Some only need spare parts, but some need new instrumentation installed. Without new instrumentation, it can result in dangerous situations and end up shutting downoperations,” Dufour explained.

Contract scopes

The company said that the Fos Cavaou LNG terminal has already successfully retrofitted one tank with a new densitometer, replacing previous systems and improving functionality and reliability. 

“Encouraged by this accomplishment and the cooperation with Svanehøj, Fos Cavaou plans to simultaneously replace the densitometers in the remaining two tanks with delivery of instrumentation in October,” said Svanehøj France.

Konkan LNG in India has embarked on a comprehensive plan to upgrade the Dabhol terminal with Svanehøj's valuable experience in safety instrumentation for LNG storage being leveraged. 

“The project encompasses replacing various components while retaining the existing temperature probes, guaranteeing qualitative safety measures,” Dufour said.

“As part of the upgrade, we will install three advanced servo-driven tank gauging systems, the LTs, to improve reliability and efficiency. An LTD tank gauging system and two data acquisition systems will also be delivered,” he added.

The United States said it exported more liquefied natural gas than any other country in the first half of 2023 with shipments averaging 11.6 billion cubic feet per day during the period, which was 4 percent more than in the same six months of the previous year.

Électricité de France, the French utility business known as EDF and a former large player in the LNG market before partially pooling its activities separately with Japan’s JERA Co. Inc., is now being overtaken by its financial difficulties amid concerns about future power shortages in the country.

Saverex, a holding company owned by Nicolas Saverys, the Chairman of Belgian shipping company and LNG player Exmar, said it intended
to launch a voluntary and conditional public takeover bid for Exmar and to take the company private.