UK LNG Terminal Offers Capacity from 2025

Grain LNG, the operator of the UK's first LNG import terminal, is offering up to 8.3mn mt/yr of capacity from 2025 when some of the contracts expire. That comes with 390,000 m³ of associated storage and over 100 berthing slots.

The capacity on offer is a mix of new build and existing capacity and will increase the size of the terminal to about 1.2mn m³. It is now 1mn m³, and has 15mn mt/yr regasification capacity. 

Grain LNG’s commercial manager Nicola Duffin said: "Grain already has the largest storage tanks in Europe, which offer our customers the flexibility to store their LNG and optimise send out in response to market prices. With the expansion of Grain we will further optimise our existing assets, which means we'll be able to be more competitive than typical new build capacity.”

In Kent, the Isle of Grain terminal is close to the Interconnector UK and Balgzand-Bacton Line which both start at Bacton, enabling short-haul tariffs and arbitrage with the Dutch title transfer facility, Europe’s most liquid hub.

Grain also has a high-pressure and low-pressure entry point to the grid, allowing customers further savings on entry costs and a much lower minimum send out requirement compared to competitors.

Grain could also benefit from proposed changes to the gas specification rules in the UK, which would significantly reduce variable costs for LNG shippers. The UK's Wobbe limits require some sources of some LNG to be blended with nitrogen to meet UK gas specifications. Plans are underway to increase these limits, which could come into force by April 2020 as part of the Gas Safety Management Regulations (GSMR). Proposals call for the Wobbe Limit to be changed to 52.85 MJ/m³ – a limit that would allow all but rich LNG to enter the grid without blending.  

Duffin added: "LNG would be subject to lower processing and variable costs. Lower costs will make the UK a more attractive destination for LNG, which ultimately benefits UK energy consumers."

The Grain terminal is the only terminal in the UK offering small-scale solutions to the market. Additional services available at Grain include reloads, transshipments and a multi-bay facility for reloading road tankers, and ISO containers. A marine breakbulk facility is planned for 2021/22.

Grain LNG is a non-regulated part of National Grid, which owns and operates the country's high-pressure gas and power grids.