France’s Dunkerque LNG, the operator of the Dunkirk LNG facility led by Belgium’s Fluxys, aims to upgrade its small-scale infrastructure due to growing demand.
“Dunkerque LNG acknowledges the increasing demand for these services and is exploring options to enhance its infrastructure to respond accordingly,” it said on Tuesday.
This includes potential additional facilities to accommodate bunkering services, as well as the expansion of its truck Loading infrastructure, it said.
In that regard, the LNG terminal operator is running a request for interest regarding its small-scale services.
These services include small-scale reloading, truck loading, and bio-LNG with a participation window opening on May 21 and ending on June 7, Dunkerque LNG said.
Through this initiative, Dunkerque LNG intends to understand the market’s interest, its needs and expectations regarding these services, it said.
This phase will be followed by bilateral discussions in order to delve in more detailed discussions, the LNG terminal operator added.
In 2020, Dunkerque LNG launched a truck loading service offering 3,000 slots per year, and it completed a jetty adaptation project in order to enable reloading and unloading services for small-scale LNG vessels with a capacity from about 5,000 cbm.
Dunkerque LNG owners include two groups with the first consortium led by Fluxys holding a 61 percent stake.
Commissioned in January 2017, the LNG terminal has an annual regasification capacity of 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
Previous shareholders EDF and TotalEnergies are the main customers of the LNG terminal through 20-year contracts.
According to Dunkerque LNG, the LNG terminal received 121 carriers in 2023, or about 18.8 million cbm. This compares to record 141 carriers, or around 22 million cbm of LNG, in 2022.
In 2023, Dunkirk reloaded six ships, or about 46,063 cbm of LNG.
For its customers, the terminal fed more than 10.6 bcm of natural gas into the network, the equivalent of 30 percent of the gas consumption of France in 2022.
Dunkirk LNG is the fourth onshore LNG terminal in France, and the three other terminals are Elengy’s Fos Tonkin, Fos Cavaou, and Montoir-de-Bretagne LNG terminals.
France also has the FSRU-based LNG import terminal in Le Havre, operated by TotalEnergies.