First US LNG shipment reaches Europe

The European gas market currently secures about a third of its supply from Russia so these US LNG exports may have pricing effects on the European market, reducing prices and creating increased competition.

European ports which have the necessary infrastructure in place could be set to benefit from increased transshipments, just like Sines Port.

The LNG Terminal in Sines lies in the Portuguese atlantic coast, in the industrial area of Sines port, about 120 Km to the south of Lisbon.

It consists of port facilities for the reception, load and refill of methane carriers, expedition facilities that represent LNG Terminal depot, three LNG storage tanks, LNG processing facilities and natural gas dispatch facilities for the pipeline connecting the Sines LNG Terminal to the Natural Gas Transport Network.

The terminal consists of a docking station for ships with a capacity from 40 000 to 216 000 m3 GNL with an unloading time of about 20 hours, three storage tanks with a commercial capacity of 390 000 m3 GNL and seven open-rack vaporisers for LNG regasification.

It has a nominal emission capacity of 900 000 m3(n)/hour, a maximum capacity of 1 350 000 m3(n)/hour and it can load up to 4 500 tanker trucks a year.

The port increased its storage capacity thanks to an expansion project completed in 2012. It is now able to store up to 390,000 cubic metres of LNG and then transfer it to other ships.