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The fourth and the fifth bays add to the three truck loading bays at the LNG hub owned by Gasunie and Vopak.
Gate announced in 2022 a final investment decision on the new bays without disclosing the price tag.
In January 2014, Gate launched the first loading station with a total capacity of up to 5,000 trucks per year. After that, the facility added two more bays in 2017.
Gate’s commercial manager, Stefaan Adriaens, told LNG Prime on Wednesday each of the bays havs a capacity of 5000 trucks per bay, “but then there is congestion.”
“A flexible service works until 3000 trucks per bay,” he said.
According to Adriaens, Gate completed 4130 truck loading operations in the first eight months of this year.
This means there is a lower interest for these services compared to the last two years.
Last year, Gate handled record 8789 truck loading operations in 2023, compared to 8598 in the prior year.
Bio-LNG
Adriaens also noted there is an increasing interest in bio-LNG.
“The land mobility market seems to move rapidly towards bio-LNG, a service which we just have started to offer as well,” he said.
He said, “already three supply chains are lined up.”
Gate recently started supplying bio-LNG from its liquefier to German state-owned energy firm Uniper.
Uniper, which is a capacity holder at Gate, became the first shipper to start using the bio-LNG capacity produced at the facility, as it looks to further reduce the emissions of its portfolio.
Gate in expansion mode
The Gate terminal has a nameplate capacity of 12 bcm or 8.8 mtpa of LNG, three LNG storage tanks with a capacity of 540,000 cbm, as well as three jetties, including one small-scale jetty.
Following modifications, Gate managed to add 4 bcm of capacity on an interruptible basis, available to users already having a position in Gate.
Besides Uniper, Gate’s current users include Shell, OMV, and Glencore. Last year, BP and PetroChina booked capacity at Gate as part of the expansion project, while ConocoPhillips secured capacity from September 2031.
Gasunie and Vopak took a final investment decision in August 2023 to build the fourth LNG tank with a capacity of 180,000 cbm and to add 4 bcm of additional regasification capacity.
Due to high demand for LNG as fuel for vessels, Gate also plans to build a second small-scale jetty.
The new jetty would be located across the existing small-scale jetty.