The UK’s Grain LNG, Europe’s largest liquefied natural gas terminal, signed on Wednesday a ten-year agreement that will extend the long-term storage and redelivery capacity of Algerian gas company Sonatrach at the Grain LNG terminal from January 2029.
Grain LNG, located on the Isle of Grain in Kent, is the biggest such terminal in Europe and the eighth largest in the world by tank capacity with a site that spans more than 600 acres in total.
National Grid’s Grain LNG is considered of strategic national importance to UK energy infrastructure and security of supply.
This is the first agreement for 125GWh/d of import capacity, equivalent to 3 million tonnes per annum of LNG, from Grain LNG’s competitive auction process which was launched in September 2023.
“The successful outcome of the auction further secures the future of Europe’s largest LNG import terminal into the next decade,” the UK’s National Grid said in a statement.
“This agreement offers Sonatrach guaranteed access to Europe’s largest LNG import terminal, which helps line up Sonatrach’s long term marketing strategy by diversifying its LNG markets,” said Mayouf Belgacem, Executive Vice President of Sonatrach.
Grain LNG is currently being expanded to store and deliver enough gas to meet up to 33% of UK gas demand.
The UK has recently seen a significant rise in LNG imports as Europe has diversified its LNG sources.
Elsewhere in Europe, Italy’s energy major Eni has been increasingly betting on Africa to import large volumes of pipeline gas and LNG to replace pipeline gas supply from Russia, which was Europe’s top gas supplier before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Eni has been particularly active in securing more natural gas supply for Europe from Africa and has fast-tracked projects in Africa to meet Europe’s gas demand in the absence of Russian pipeline deliveries.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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