Świnoujście LNG Terminal certificate of critical systems’ assembly completion signed
Acceptance process of all critical systems in the LNG Terminal in Świnoujście that are necessary for the receipt of the first delivery of liquefied natural gas from Qatar is completed. The process of installation’s start-up is in progress.
The certificate of assembly completion for all critical systems was signed by the contractor and the investor of the LNG Terminal in Świnoujście last Friday, 09 Oct. 2015. It marks the finalization of crucial construction works at the project. Currently, the installation is under commissioning preparing it to receive the first cargo of liquefied natural gas form Qatar.
Under the commissioning process, the main components of the terminal, i.e. the LNG storage tanks are being dried and intertized i.e. oxygen is being removed from the installation. For this purpose, the volume of 800 thousand cubic meters of inert gas – here: nitrogen – will be used. The temperature inside the tanks is -20 Centigrade. Nitrogen in liquid form will be also used for preliminary cooling of gas pipelines to the temperature of -130 Centigrade. The storage tanks, all the same, will be cooled to this temperature with LNG vapour once the first methane carrier arrives to the port.
Pursuant to the Annex to the EPC Contract signed in September, the EPC Contractor for the LNG Terminal in Świnoujście has been committed to receive the first delivery of LNG in December this year. First gas cargo will be used for installation tests in real conditions – technical start-up involving cool-down, tuning the installation’s performance, and a trial run of the entire terminal. Once all tests are completed, the gas delivered in first cargo will be injected into transmission grid and subsequently provided to end-users. The second delivery of LNG cargo for remaining operational tests will be shipped to Świnoujście in the first quarter of 2016. Commercial operations of the LNG Terminal will be possible in the second quarter of 2016, following the acquisition of all necessary administrative decisions and signing the handover protocol.
The liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Świnoujście will allow Poland to receive natural gas delivered by sea virtually from any place in the world. The initial regasification capacity of the plant will amount to 5 bcm per year and will cover a third of Poland’s annual gas demand. Currently, the Investor is considering an extension of the plant’s capacity by 50% up to 7.5 bcm per year, the volume which will satisfy half of Poland’s annual gas consumption. The Świnoujście terminal is the only facility on this scale in Central and Eastern Europe.
The LNG Terminal is an important constituent of Poland’s energy security system. Together with new gas pipelines, interconnectors, underground storage capacity and domestic production it forms a solid foundation of Poland’s gas independence. It shall be considered as an inherent component of Poland’s energy security strategy.
