After a decade collecting dust in the port of Gijón, this weekend the El Musel regasification plant, owned by Enagás, received the first methane tanker. The discharge of liquefied gas (LNG) from the Cool Racer, with a capacity of 147,000 m3, will serve to carry out the first technical checks on the operation of the plant, which will be fully operational in a few weeks.
The regasification plant was paralyzed in 2012 by court order after an investment of some 360 ??million euros. After years of criticism about the suitability of its construction, the outbreak of the war in Ukraine has turned it into “a strategic piece to guarantee the security of energy supply in Europe that includes the strategic European response plan, REPowerEU”, as he has assured in different occasions Arturo Gonzalo Aizpiri, CEO of Enagás.
The Asturian plant has a capacity for 300,000 cubic meters in two tanks, and for about 100 vessels per year, 50 inbound and 50 outbound. But the main service it can provide is its berthing capacity, which accommodates ships of between 50,000 and 266,000 cubic meters. In other words, the Q-Max, which are the largest LNG tankers, can be unloaded there.
The Musel thus opens a new channel so that Europe can access 8 bcm (8,000 million cubic meters) of additional LNG. Central European countries will be able to hire these large ships bound for El Musel and then redirect their cargo there through smaller-capacity ships that can dock on their coasts. Its implementation comes at a strategic moment for Europe.
Gas prices are far from the maximums that were reached last year and reserves exceed an average of 77% in Europe, 90% in Spain, also well above last year, but new dark clouds lurk on the horizon .
According to data released by Bloomberg, European natural gas posted its biggest monthly rise since last summer. “Reference futures ended June more than 30% higher. It is the first monthly increase since March and the biggest jump since last July ”, collects the agency’s analysis.
The upward pressure was related to the Wagner revolt in Russia, but also due to the increase in demand due to the strong summer ahead and the cut in supply due to the maintenance of plants in Norway. But what is causing the most fear, according to Bloomberg, is that Chinese demand may be waking up, which will make Europe have to bid on price to attract large methane tankers to its shores.
