Trader Trafigura is investing $30m and has taken a long-term lease in the Teesside LNG import facility of UK’s northeast coast.
The facility, which was formerly set up and controlled by Excelerate Energy in 2006 but has since been decommissioned, has been used to ship in LNG cargoes via LNG regasification vessels.
A spokeswoman for Trafigura confirmed to TradeWinds that the company has taken a long-term lease from PD Ports on the terminal site.
She said Trafigura will put new equipment into the Teesside LNG Facility which will be supplied with gas by floating storage and regasification units (FSRU) “when conditions are right”.
“This is all subject to obtaining the necessary permits for the project from the authorities,” the company added.
Trafigura has been expanding its LNG business and last year increased its traded volumes of LNG by 53% to 6.4 million tonnes.
In 2016 the trader set up a LNG infrastructure business and at exhibited a model of a LNG regasification barge it was considering building at the World Gas Conference.
“We expect that lower cost, modular and flexible infrastructure will provide a powerful support for our trading business as infrastructure assets have for other Trafigura trading desks since the company’s inception,” the company said in its annual report in December.
“Over the coming months, we expect a further increase in global LNG supplies with prices that will stimulate new demand. Our priorities will be to capture new volumes, optimise our infrastructure portfolio and continue to build our natural gas business for long-term success.”
