Activity at Record High at Zeebrugge LNG
The Zeebrugge LNG import terminal in Belgium is scheduled to receive 16 ships in the first 20 days of December, its operator Fluxys reported on December 3.
The vessels will mostly arrive to unload LNG for regasification, although some will also dock for transhipments. Activity at the facility has been strong throughout this year, Fluxys said, with the scheduled arrivals in December bringing the total number of ships mooring at the site in 2019 to a record 125.
The previous annual record, of only 82 ships, was reached in 2009. The terminal is also set to handle nearly twice as many truck loadings this year compared with 2018.
Zeebrugge LNG was commissioned in 1987 and has an annual through capacity of 9bn m3/yr, with 380,000 m3 of storage capacity. A fifth 180,000 m3 storage tank is under construction that will allow Russia’s Yamal LNG project to tranship LNG from its ice-class vessels to conventional carriers. Qatar Petroleum, the terminal’s biggest supplier, in September extended its agreement to reserve its own unloading slots for another 20 years and will have all the capacity once other companies' contracts expire until 2044.