Enagás, the Spanish gas grid and LNG terminals operator, has held an event for marketers and the regulatory authorities at its headquarters in Madrid where it revealed plans to launch an open season on March 6 for logistics services at the re-activated El Musel import terminal in Northwest Spain on the Bay of Biscay.
“The process of contracting capacity to provide logistics services at the terminal begins, which is a milestone for the start of commercial operations,” said Enagás.
Government plan
El Musel is part of the Government’s “More Energy Security Plan” and the terminal will play an important role in strengthening Europe’s security of energy supply being becoming an LNG trans-shipment hub for the EU. “The process will begin with a first non-binding phase in which trading companies will be able to express their interest in the logistics services offered for LNG unloading, storage and loading operations, on an unregulated access basis,” explained Enagás.
“This will be followed by a binding phase in which marketers will bid for the capacity and the process will end with the allocation of long-term logistics services.,” it added.
Under the regulated access regime, the El Musel terminal will only offer the essential regasification service for the proper management of the terminal, as well as the tank-loading service.
The El Musel terminal has received approval from the National Markets and Competition Commission for its special economic regime as a logistics facility, a necessary step to begin the process of assigning logistics services.
Enagás has invited regional energy company Reganosa to participate in the process by virtue of a recent agreement whereby Reganosa becomes a 25 percent shareholder in the El Musel terminal and Enagás acquires the entire regional transmission network in the northwest region hitherto owned by Reganosa.
The El Musel terminal in the Port of Gijón could contribute up to 8 billion cubic metres of additional LNG to Europe’s supply.
The terminal has facilities for the berthing of vessels of between 50,000 cubic metres capacity and 266,000 cubic metres capacity and two storage tanks, each with capacity of 150,000 cubic metres.
Meanwhile, Enagás and Reganosa earlier signed an agreement whereby Enagás acquires Reganosa's 130-kilometres (81 miles) gas pipeline network for €54 million ($57M) and Reganosa purchases 25 percent of El Musel for €95M.
Under the terms of the agreement, Enagás acquires the entire transmission network that until now was owned by Reganosa and which consists of 130km of 80-bar pressure gas pipelines.
Gas flows
The transmission network delivers natural gas directly to the Pontes (800 megawatts) and Sabón (400 MW) combined cycle gas-fired power plants, to the Coruña refinery (120,000 barrels/day) and to the towns of Pontes and Cerceda.
The Reganosa name comes from Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa) and stands for northwest regasification.
