Regas from Dunkirk Enters French System

France's GRTgaz gas transmission system received the first flows of regasified LNG from the new Dunkirk terminal in the morning of July 20, terminal operator Dunkerque LNG has announced.

It also said that a second LNG cargo is due to arrive on August 7 at the terminal at Dunkirk in northern France but did not disclose from where. The second cargo will also be a commissioning cargo, enabling final testing of the terminal to be completed, prior to its commercial start-up in September.

The first commissioning cargo arrived on July 8 aboard Madrid Spirit from Nigeria, and unloaded its cargo during the following week, before departing Dunkirk on July 16. LNG from that cargo began entering the terminal at 23.00 local time on July 8 and was pumped into storage tank 3, filling it to a depth of 20 metres by July 18. Dunkerque LNG said it would gradually start filling the other two LNG storage tanks in order to prepare for the second cargo's arrival. The price of gas for day-ahead delivery at the Dutch hub has not changed over the fortnight, at €14.20/MWh, or $4.60/mn Btu, according to exchange operator EEX.

Dominique Mockly, newly appointed as CEO of France's second largest gas grid TIGF (Photo credit: Twitter)

GRTgaz operates about 85% of France's gas transmission system, the remaining 15% is run by southwest France gas grid operator TIGF. The latter said July 13 it had appointed Dominique Mockly as its new CEO from July 31, succeeding Monique Delamare who has become TIGF's new chair. Mockly joined French nuclear contractor Areva in 2003 and was director of its downstream business group from 2011 until now.

Mark Smedley