Spain’s Enagas retires Barcelona LNG tank

Enagas said in an operation note on August 26 the TK-1400 tank, located in the Barcelona terminal, is reaching the end of its service life.

“Therefore, its withdrawal from service for purpose of calculating the LNG storage capacity will be effective on November 1st, 2024,” the company said.

Due to this, LNG storage capacity estimates will be reduced, but existing contracts will not be affected, according to the firm.

Launched in 1969, the 12.6 mtpa Barcelona LNG terminal features six LNG storage tanks with a total capacity of 760,000 cbm.

Besides the mentioned tank, the facility has four 150,000 cbm tanks and another old 80,000 cbm tank.

The Barcelona plant is the oldest LNG terminal in Spain.

Enagas is the sole owner of the Barcelona facility and it also has wholly-owned LNG import plants in Huelva and Cartagena.

The firm also owns 75 percent in the Musel LNG facility, 50 percent in the BBG regasification plant in Bilbao, and 72.5 percent of the Sagunto plant, while Reganosa operates the Mugardos plant.

Spanish monthly LNG imports have been constantly dropping this year compared to the year before.

In July, LNG imports decreased by 33.1 percent year-on-year to about 13.7 TWh, and accounted for 56.9 percent of the total gas imports.

On the other hand, Spanish LNG terminals loaded about 2.49 TWh in July, the highest monthly figure this year.

Reloads surged by 548 percent compared to some 0.38 TWh in the same month last year and they also rose compared to 1.81 TWh in June.