Page 8 - Euroil Week 49 2019
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EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Elengy fully books French LNG terminal
FRANCE
LNG supplies transported via the French gas grid have doubled over the past yer.
FRENCH LNG terminal operator Elengy has managed to fully book its Montoir-de-Bretagne regasification plant between 2023 and 2035, with only a small amount of spare capacity still availa- ble in 2021 and 2022.
Elengy in July offered around 3.5bn cubic metres of unsubscribed capacity between Octo- ber 2021 and December 2035, and even pushed back the deadline for bids by a month until November 5, reporting “a tremendous level of interest from the market.”
Commenting on the result, Elengy said on December 4 that it reflected “the dynamism of the LNG market, as well as the appetite for regasification capacity in France, gateway to the North-West Europe gas markets.”
Montoir-de-Bretagne is situated on the Atlantic coast, while Elengy’s other two termi- nals – Fos Tonkin and Fos Cavaou – are on the shore of the Mediterranean. The Montoir-de- Bretagne facility entered operations in 1980 and includes 360,000 cubic metres of storage capac- ity and two berths that can receive LNG carriers with tanks up to 267,000 cubic metres in size.
Elengy said it would study options for offer- ing further capacity at the Fos Cavaou terminal, near Marseille, after 2030, as well as at Montoir- de-Bretagne beyond 2035, in order to meet client expectations better.
The two sites provide direct and attractive access to European markets and have a strategic location, making them competitive LNG hubs for reloading, transhipment, bunkering and truck loading, the operator said.
LNG supplies transported via the French gas grid have doubled over the past year, reach- ing 211 TWh at the end of October. The growth is the result of higher overall demand for LNG in Europe and the completion of a pipe- line linking northern and southern France. Another factor has been last year’s creation of a single market zone, known as Trading Region France, which has facilitated gas transit across the country.
The surge in LNG transit has helped France boost its gas storage to record levels ahead of winter, with network operators reporting stored volumes of 129 TWh in late November.
INVESTMENT
EU’s Marguerite Fund sheds stake in Latvian gas grid
LATVIA
The operator’s shareholders are required to divest under unbundling rules.
JAPANESE conglomerate Marubeni has struck deal to buy a 29% stake in Latvia’s gas transmis- sion and storage operator Conexus Baltic Grid from the Luxembourg-based Marguerite Fund.
The Marubeni-backed MM Capital Infra- structure Fund 1 was selected as a buyer follow- ing a tender, Marguerite said in a statement on December 5. The sale is subject to regulatory approvals in Latvia.
Marguerite acquired an interest in Latvian gas utility Latvijas Gaze (LG) in January 2016, but the company’s transmission activities were spun off later that year to create Conexus. The unbundling was required under the EU’s Third Energy Package – legislation aimed at liberalis- ing bloc energy markets.
LG’s shareholders – which also include Russia’s state-owned gas supplier Gazprom and Germany’s Uniper Ruhrgas – are required to divest from Conexus under the unbundling rules. Gazprom originally had until the end of 2017 to dipose of its stake but missed this
deadline, blaming the delay on a lack of buyer interest.
Gazprom has been given extra time by Lat- vian regulators, and now has until the start of 2020 to dispose of its 34.1% stake. The company announced on December 4 it would hold a new auction for the share, inviting bids at a starting price of €79mn ($88mn). Offers will be accepted until December 26.
Conexus’ prize asset is the Incukalns gas stor- age facility, capable of housing up to 2.3bn cubic metres of gas. The facility stocks up on gas during summer and then acts as a reserve during winter. Latvia has mooted plans to expand its capacity to 2.8 bcm in the coming years.
MM Capital Infrastructure Fund 1 is man- aged by Marubeni in partnership with Japanese bank Mizuho and its subsidiary Asset Manage- ment One. Marguerite is an EU-backed energy and infrastructure fund. Their respective finan- cial advisors in the sale were Macquarie Capital and Ernst and Young.
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