France: Dunkirk LNG resumes send-out tests

France’s Dunkirk LNG import terminal has restarted send-out tests following an incident late July that led to the plant being put into safe mode.

Europe’s newest LNG terminal in the English Channel near Belgium, that is currently in commissioning phase, was put into safe mode on July 25, just weeks after the arrival of the first commissioning cargo due to LNG presence in flare causing “a larger flame than usual.”

The incident led to the evacuation of the terminal’s personnel and also forced the terminal to stop send-out tests to the French gas grid, operated by GRTgaz.

The terminal restarted operations shortly after the incident saying that the tests would continue once the equipment that caused the incident has been repaired.

According to Dunkerque LNG, the operator of the LNG import facility, send-out tests from the facility have now resumed.

The terminal’s  send-out rate for the “remaining days of the month will be between 0 and 5 GWh,” Dunkerque LNG said in a notice on Wednesday.

To remind, Dunkirk LNG also pushed back the second commissioning cargo that was initially planned on August 7th to the first half of September.

France’s fourth LNG terminal will have an annual regasification capacity of 13 billion cbm of gas, enough to cover about 20% of France and Belgium’s yearly gas consumption.

Dunkirk LNG is 65% owned by EDF, 25% by Fluxys and 10% by Total.

 

LNG World News Staff