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Europe importing record amounts of LNG in 2022
Europe LNG trading
The US Energy Information Administration reports that Europe’s (the EU and the UK) liquefied natural gas imports set an all-time historical record high in April 2022, averaging 16.5 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) in the month and exceeding 19.0 Bcf/d on some days. Europe’s LNG imports increased in 2022 because natural gas storage inventories were at historically low levels from the autumn of 2021 through to spring 2022. Existing sources of natural gas (and some substitute fuels) delivered by pipeline have not been meeting Europe’s energy needs, and spot gas prices have generally been higher than spot prices in other markets. This has resulted in more imports from suppliers with destination flexibility in their contracts, particularly from the United States.
From January through to May 2022, LNG imports into the European Union and the United Kingdom averaged 14.9 Bcf/d, which is 5.9 Bcf/d (66%) higher than the annual average in 2021 and 4.7 Bcf/d more than the pre-pandemic high of 10.3 Bcf/d in 2019. Fourteen countries in Europe have LNG import facilities; however, utilisation of these facilities varies by region. The northern and southern parts of the continent’s natural gas pipeline grid are not fully integrated. LNG import terminals in northwest Europe are connected to a more fully integrated pipeline grid, which can transport large volumes of
Monthly imports of liquefied natural gas to Europe 2022, billions cu ft per day (Source – CEDIGAZ)
natural gas to major load centres and storage facilities across the zone. LNG import facilities in southern Europe primarily serve local and regional markets.
From January through to May 2022, deliveries of regasified LNG (LNG vaporised from liquid to gaseous form) to the pipeline grid in Spain, Portugal, and Italy in southern Europe averaged 4.6 Bcf/d, and LNG import (or regasification) terminals in the region were utilised at 58% of their capacity. During the same period, volumes of regasified LNG delivered to France, Belgium, and the Netherlands in northwest Europe averaged 5.8 Bcf/d, exceeding the nameplate capacity of regasification facilities and reaching an all-time peak utilisation of 115% in April 2022. Utilisation rates of regasification terminals
can exceed the standard nameplate capacity of 100% during periods of peak use. Further increases in LNG imports into northwest Europe will be limited by the availability of regasification capacity in the region. The United Kingdom has the second-largest LNG regasification capacity in Europe (4.7 Bcf/d), and it can export up to 2.5 Bcf/d of gas to the European Union via the Interconnector pipeline into Belgium and the BBL pipeline into the Netherlands. Regasified LNG volumes in the UK averaged 2.9 Bcf/d from January through May 2022, and regasification facilities ran at a 63% utilisation rate, up from 30% last year. Exports from the United Kingdom via interconnecting pipelines to the European Union have been running at close to maximum rates since March 2022.
Jacobs–built robot to clean up Fukushima Japan Nuclear power
US firm Jacobs has designed and built a robotic tool to obtain crucial information about the state of a damaged nuclear power reactor at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. The remotely operated device will collect pebble-like debris that was deposited at the bottom of the reactor containment vessel after the meltdown caused by the earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. A prototype of the device has passed demanding factory acceptance and performance tests to meet the requirements of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is leading the project to develop the tool. It is expected that, following acceptance in Japan, a radiation resistant version will be built that will be able to carry out the important task of retrieving samples from the highly contaminated reactor. The exact nature of the residual debris is currently unknown, so examination of the retrieved samples will provide crucial data for the next steps in the clean-up and decommissioning of the Fukushima reactors. Designed by Jacobs’ engineers in the UK, the robotic tool had to meet more than 300
functional, operational, performance and geometric requirements. It also had to be small enough to enter the damaged containment vessel and pick up sand and pebbles up to 10 mm in size by deploying a bucket-type retrieval device. Trials have shown that a remote operator, guided by images from a built-in camera, will need no more than eight minutes to insert the device into the containment vessel and retrieve debris samples, thus minimising the impact of radiation damage on the functioning of the device. MHI implemented this project through the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning, supported by funding from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
6 | June 2022 |
www.modernpowersystems.com
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