Enagas team here to discuss LNG island supply involvement

A team of highly ranked officials of Scale Gas, a subsidiary of Enagás Internacional, part of a three-member consortium taking part in an international tender offering a 66 percent stake of DESFA, Greece’s natural gas grid operator, is in Athens to discuss the possibility of entering an LNG supply project for the islands, energypress officials have informed.

DEPA, the the public gas corporation, has signed an MoU with the main power utility PPC for this project. The visiting Scale Gas officials are expected to hold meetings with DEPA, PPC and DESFA officials.

Enagás is already interested in the Greek market, as highlighted by its participation in the DESFA tender.

Enagás has joined forces with Italy’s Snam and Belgium’s Fluxys for the DESFA tender. Their rival team is comprised of Spain’s Regasificadora del Noroeste (Reganosa Asset Investments), Romania’s Transgaz and the EBRD, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The binding offers submitted by two bidding teams will most likely be opened next week. A further delay has not been ruled out. An extensive check of bid details by TAIPED, the state privatization fund, has delayed the disclosure of offers.

DEPA recently presented its LNG supply plan, an SSLNG (Small Scale LNG) supply project involving the transfer of small LNG quantities from large terminals to regional terminal and storage facilities by vessels as a means of servicing distant areas detached from the natural gas grid.

The Revythoussa LNG terminal on the islet just off Athens, now being upgraded into a bigger facility, is expected to play a key role in this LNG supply plan for the islands, and, furthermore, for shipping fuel supply.

A committee assembled by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, for interconnection projects concluded that LNG represents an optimal solution for large islands, such as those of the northeast Aegean Sea.

Enagás, Europe’s biggest LNG supplier, possesses extensive knowhow in this domain. The Spanish company operates a total of seven LNG terminals in Barcelona, Huelva, Cartagena, Gijón, Bilbao and at Sagunto port. Enagás also fully owns Gascan, currently developing two liquefaction stations on the Canary Islands.