BARCELONA — Considering the expected growth in US LNG exports over the next several years, it is natural to focus on the developers, construction contractors, regulators and contract pricing mechanisms that enable the resources to flow.
But, what happens at the next step in the LNG value chain when cargoes get where they are going?
At Enagas’ regasification terminal at the Port of Barcelona, which received a shipment from Cheniere Energy’s Sabine Pass export terminal in Louisiana in August aboard the GasLog Salem tanker, the LNG is distributed to customers in Spain and throughout Europe via a variety of means.
The most common is for the LNG to be converted back into pipeline-ready gas and then delivered to the local grid that serves Barcelona and grids that serve the rest of Spain.
During a tour Thursday following the conclusion of the weeklong Gastech conference, the terminal operation manager, Ramses Ninou, explained how the LNG, at a temperature of -160 degrees Celsius, is fed through compressors and filtered into big vats of seawater that are warmed to 40-50 C. Thirteen kilos of seawater is needed for each kilo of LNG.
The process returns the liquid gas to its dry gas state, and the water is returned to the sea only about 5-6 degrees warmer than when it was extracted, officials say.
At this time of year, the facility’s sendout rate to the grids is about 600,000 cubic meters of gas per hour. The gas is used to fuel power plants, heat homes, produce electricity and serve industrial facilities. The Barcelona terminal’s maximum sendout rate is 2 million cu m of gas per hour, but the highest rate it has reached was 1,650,000 cu m per hour during one recent high-demand winter.
The terminal also distributes small loads of LNG by truck to customers in Spain and several other countries. An average of 25 trucks are loaded each day, bound for countries including Italy, France and the UK.
The trucks that go to Italy can be lifted onto vessels for the journey across the Mediterranean Sea. The trucks can even reach Macedonia a few thousand kilometers away, as the insulated hull is able to secure the LNG for up to 50 days without any material boil-off.
If LNG is delivered by truck, it would be regasified at its ultimate destination.
For customers that don’t need the LNG or converted dry gas right away, the terminal can park the LNG in its six storage tanks for later use.
Enagas receives six-seven LNG tankers a month with an average capacity of 150,000 cubic meters. It also can handle the supersized Q-Flex tankers. The biggest exporters to the facility include Australia, Qatar, Nigeria, the US and Norway, officials say.
Because some of the exporters liquefy heavier types of LNG than others, the facility’s storage tanks are loaded from the top and bottom, and the density inside the tanks is constantly monitored.
So, how about those medium-size loads of gas that an industrial customer outside of Spain might need — ones that are perhaps not as feasible for a pipeline, too big for a truck and too small for a vessel?
Germany’s VTG AG, a wagon hire and rail car company, has designed what it describes as a “movable pipeline,” a large rail car capable of delivering mid-size loads of LNG from Enagas’ import terminal in Barcelona to the rest of Europe.
The rub? Big money is needed to extend the rail tracks from where a prototype now sits adjacent to the Enagas facility. Other infrastructure also is needed to make the LNG-by-rail proposal a reality, says Heinz-Jurgen Hiller, an international manager for the company.
Hiller says his company is talking to some interested parties who may be willing to finance some of the needed infrastructure. His pitch: VTG would lease the LNG rail cars, with a cost to the shipper that is meaningfully cheaper than taking the same-size load on several trucks.
LNG-by-rail isn’t the only thing Enagas is experimenting with along with its vendors at the Barcelona terminal.
It is trying to sell some of the freezing cold air that comes off the LNG as it is filtered through its facility. A rectangular walk-in freezer sits at the site — the effect inside was created with LNG that was received at the terminal.
Officials say industrial clients who operate refrigerated warehouses might be interested in such a product.
The growing number of regasification facilities popping up all over Europe and planned for the years ahead are part of the reason US exporters are so bullish about future demand for their liquefaction.
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