Zeebrugge LNG Terminal Starts Transshipments Under Yamal Contract

Belgium’s Zeebrugge LNG terminal has commenced transshipments under a long-term contract with Yamal Trade concluded in 2015.

In late December 2019, the terminal loaded the Yenisei River vessel with LNG from the newly commissioned LNG storage tank.

“With the start of the long-term contract for transshipments we are taking yet another step in the continuous development of our LNG services offer,” Pascal De Buck, CEO of Fluxys Belgium, commented.

“The terminal is now also a fully-fledged link in the logistics chain for the worldwide delivery of LNG from the Yamal production terminal in Siberia. The transshipment activity is an important new business line and the port of Zeebrugge will see a significant increase in ship movements.”

As explained, the dedicated LNG tank was built specifically for the transshipment needs of Yamal LNG with a capacity of 180,000 cubic meters, allowing the project to transship up to 8 million tons of LNG per annum.

The additional capacity allows performing transshipments between icebreaking LNG vessels coming from the Yamal production terminal and conventional LNG carriers, without having to be docked simultaneously.

Construction of the new facilities started in mid-2015 and in early December 2019 they were ready for test operations which were concluded successfully. According to Fluxys, loading rates exceeded 12,500 cbm LNG per hour from one storage tank.

“The LNG tank construction for Yamal LNG began in Zeebrugge in 2015 and its commissioning is a key milestone for the project,” Lev Feodosyev, Novatek’s First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, said in a separate statement.

“The use of a dedicated LNG tank increases the reliability of LNG supplies from Yamal LNG under long-term offtake agreements, as well as increases the number of LNG cargos transshipped in Europe for delivery to other markets, and, primarily, the fastest growing markets in Asia.”

Under the 20-year contract with Yamal Trade, up to 8 million tons of LNG can be transshipped at the Zeebrugge terminal annually. This corresponds to potential additional traffic of 214 LNG carriers per year.

Ahead of the new storage capacity becoming available, the terminal already performed an array of direct transshipments between two simultaneously docked ships since May 2018.