French construction firm Vinci said it has won a contract to build a 190,000 cbm LNG tank at the UK’s Isle of Grain facility as part of an expansion project that will boost the terminal’s capacity.
Terminal operator National Grid awarded the EPC deal to three Vinci units, namely Entrepose Contracting, Vinci Construction Grands Projets and Taylor Woodrow.
Vinci said on Thursday the deal has a price tag of 200 million euros ($242.5 million), and the works will continue until June 2025.
In addition, this full containment facility will have a 9% nickel steel inner tank with a pre-stressed concrete outer shell, poured in-situ using slipforming, the firm said.
Grain LNG is the largest terminal in Europe and eighth largest in the world by tank capacity, according to National Grid.
Currently, it has 1 bcm of LNG storage capacity spread across eight tanks and an annual throughput capacity of 20 bcm.
National Grid confirmed the expansion project in October last year after it signed a 25-year deal with state-owned LNG giant Qatar Petroleum.
The deal will enable QP unit to utilize the facility in Kent from mid-2025 and the firm booked the equivalent of up to 7.2 mtpa of the terminal’s future throughput capacity.
This allowed National Grid to expand the Grain LNG facilities, that, amongst others, include an additional tank and associated vaporizer capacity, bringing its future annual throughput capacity to 25 bcm.