QatarEnergy said in a statement on Monday that utilization of the capacity started in July.
The capacity of up to 7.2 million tons per annum will be utilized pursuant to a long-term agreement signed in October 2020.
According to QatarEnergy, the first LNG cargo to be delivered under this agreement was unloaded at the Isle of Grain terminal on July 15, marking the start of the 25-year term of the agreement.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s energy monitser and the president and CEO of QatarEnergy, said this is an “important milestone, which expands our LNG storage portfolio, and marks a significant step in QatarEnergy’s strategic expansion into the UK gas market through Europe’s largest LNG receiving terminal.”
This also complements QatarEnergy’s wholly-owned subsidiary, QatarEnergy Trading’s existing LNG terminal capacities at Zeebrugge (Belgium) and Montoir (France), QatarEnergy noted.
Centrica and Bridgepoint
Launched in 2005, the Grain LNG terminal previously had eight operational LNG storage tanks able to store 1,000,000 cbm.
However, National Grid is expanding the facility with a new 190,000-cbm LNG storage tank, and ot previously said that it expects to complete construction in summer 2025.
Moreover, the European Commission recently approved the joint purchase by Centrica and Bridgepoint of National Grid’s Grain LNG terminal.
In August, a consortium of UK-based energy firm Centrica and US-based investment firm Energy Capital Partners, part of Bridgepoint Group, agreed to buy the Grain LNG terminal.
Centrica and ECP will each own 50 percent in the facility under the deal, with an enterprise value of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.01 billion).
National Grid expects the transaction to complete later this year.
