Belgian Fluxys Sees Profit Down 20%

Belgium's regulated gas transmission system operator Fluxys reported March 29 a profit for 2016 of €48.484mn ($52.1mn), down 20% on 2015's €61.096mn.

Turnover of €509.5mn in 2016 was down 5.3% on 2015 and this drop in regulated turnover is mainly the result of lower costs: operating expenses, financial expenses and the return authorised by the regulator. Tariffs were cut by 7%.

In the summer of last year Fluxys, a shareholder in the UK-Belgium interconnector, transported record volumes from the UK, while in the winter record volumes flowed in the opposite direction.

The total volume transported through the Fluxys network increased slightly over the year, to 431 terawatt-hours of gas (40bn m³), from 424 TWh in 2015, with higher cross-border flows and higher consumption within Belgium, it said.

Despite this, Fluxys sold less transmission capacity in 2016 than in 2015, it said, "reflecting a general trend across Europe. This is because system users are increasingly optimising their capacity portfolios, calculating the minimum capacity that needs to be contracted based on the precise capacity they estimate they will need to supply their customers."

Its investment was down, from €188.1mn to €139.2mn. The company spent €103.8mn on LNG assets and the second jetty at Zeebrugge was operational in December. This will be needed for Yamal LNG to offload cargoes from its ice-class tankers into temporary storage for trans-shipment.

(Credit: William Powell)

In 2016, the Zeebrugge LNG terminal (pictured above) again saw more capacity used than at other terminals in northwest Europe while less regasified LNG entered the grid. Fewer LNG vessels were unloaded than the previous year but more ships were loaded and small-scale LNG activities increased. The combination of fewer unloaded vessels and more loaded ships led to less gas being sent out from the terminal into the pipeline network, it said.

William Powell