The Gijón regasification plant carried out its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) unloading operation this weekend after the ship with which it began the process docked this Saturday in the port of El Musel, where several operators work from early in the morning around the ship and around the tanks.
The “Cool Racer” methane tanker docked at 8:20 am at the dock of the Enagás regasification plant in the port of Gijón with 150,000 tons of liquefied natural gas from the United States.
Civil Guard intervention
On the occasion of the arrival of the ship, the Civil Guard established a special protection device that began on those of Cabo Peñas, from where the escort began to the mouth of the port. Subsequently, the Underwater Activities Group (GEAS) with the support of the helicopter continued the escort task until the final docking.
The Enagás Infrastructure Manager, Claudio Rodríguez, has stated that the equipment will have a maximum capacity to unload and load 100 ships of liquefied natural gas per year with a capacity of 170,000 cubic meters and a minimum of 12 for cold maintenance and guarantee the operation of the facilities.
He stressed that the El Musel plant will operate these first few weeks in “test mode” so that the “necessary technical adjustments” can be carried out, as Enagás itself explained. Later, in a matter of weeks, “if everything goes well” in the tests, it will be working in “normal mode” and “usual” for commercialization.
Protesters against the plant
Dozens of people, summoned by the Urban Neighborhood Federation of Gijón, the Platform against Pollution and Asturies pol Clima, have demonstrated this Saturday against the start-up of the Enagás regasification plant.
During the protest, which took place simultaneously with the tasks of unloading liquefied natural gas, the demonstrators have demanded that the plant not be put into operation, considering that its construction “continues to be illegal” and constitutes a danger to the population and the environment, according to a spokesperson for the organizing organizations.
The main activity of the plant, which will not be 100% allocated to access to the Spanish gas system to supply national demand, will be the provision of LNG logistics services, including the loading and unloading of ships and storage. It has a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, divided into two tanks of 150,000 cubic meters each, which may be used by other member states of the European Union.
The Gijón terminal, which will allow the berthing of ships between 50,000 and 266,000 cubic meters, could provide up to 8 bcm (8,000 million cubic meters) of LNG to Europe. The regasification plant was paralyzed in 2012 by court order after an investment of some 360 million euros for violating the regulations then in force in its construction, forcing the entire administrative procedure to be started again.
