On October 17th Skangas successfully completed the first small scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) loading at the Statoil operated LNG plant at Melkøya island outside Hammerfest in Norway, Skangas says in a press release. Statoil delivered the cargo of 100 GWh to Skangas’ vessel Coral Energy.
“This terminal is an addition to our existing LNG sources. Having several LNG sources supports our customers and us with additional security of supply and it increases our opportunities,” says Kimmo Rahkamo, CEO of Skangas. “In addition, a future possible supply alternative from the northern part of Norway could make it easier to open up for new deliveries along the entire coast of Norway”.
The operation was conducted on the large-scale jetty at Melkøya LNG plant. The jetty is constructed for conventional sized LNG vessels. As a comparison Skangas’ vessel Coral Energy is a small to medium scale LNG carrier with a capacity of 15 600 m3. In the Nordics her main task is to serve Skangas’ customers and terminals with LNG.
The LNG from Melkøya was delivered to Skangas’ terminal in Lysekil, Sweden where Skangas has a LNG terminal serving one of their major customers.
It is the gas from the Snøhvit field that arrives at Melkøya terminal where it is converted into LNG. Conversion to LNG makes it possible to transport gas by purpose-built vessels and therefore industries can use gas as energy although they are not connected to a gas grid.
Earlier this year Statoil and Skangas also did the first small scale LNG loading at the Klaipeda Terminal in Lithuania. Skangas continues to deliver LNG to Statoil’s supply vessels from several bases in Norway. In Northern Europe, Skangas’ new LNG bunker vessel Coralius makes LNG increasingly available for the marine market.