Hoegh LNG's Port Meridian Floating LNG Terminal Ready for Construction

Höegh LNG has been granted final approvals to go ahead with its Port Meridian Deepwater Port project in UK. On June 15th the Department of Energy & Climate Change (Offshore Environment and Decommissioning, OED) confirmed that a favorable Environmental Impact Assessment approval decision is given for the offshore part of the project. Barrow Borrow Council's planning meeting consented to the development of the pipeline route, onshore facilities and access on the May 19th, which means that all main permits have been granted.

"This successfully completes more than 3 years of development work on the project, and confirms Höegh LNG's strategy to design and develop a new competitive LNG market access into the UK natural gas market," said Sveinung J. Stohle, CEO of Höegh LNG. "This is one of several projects of similar kind we have in our portfolio, and we are very pleased with the support the UK regulatory authorities have afforded us in this development. We are now focusing on the commercial part of the project, and are currently discussing with several major companies for the capacity at the terminal. Port Meridian will offer our customers new LNG import capacity and thus the possibility for marketers to diversify their sources and increase the security of supply to their consumers in UK, while LNG owners are offered an alternative and flexible solution for access to the attractive UK natural gas market."

Port Meridian base design is for a Floating Re-gasification Units (FSRU), but the with added flexibility of two unloading buoys, a large diameter subsea pipeline and onshore facilities connecting the system to the UK National Transmissions system (NTS). The annual import capacity of the project could be up to 8 billion cubic meters, which would represent between five and ten percent of the UK annual consumption of natural gas. The onshore installations include the pipeline landfall on Walney Island, the crossing of Walney Island and Piel Channel to connect to the above ground installations (AGI) close to Barrow-in-Furness on the mainland. The primary purpose of the AGI is to ensure that the imported gas is of suitable delivery condition for the (NTS).

Considering the Environment

The project will adhere to several conditions relating to noise, construction management and environmental impact mitigation. As part of this process the Barrow Council carried out an Appropriate Assessment which confirms that Port Meridian will not have any long term detrimental impact upon the sensitive and nationally important environment that it will operate in.

Flexible and Reliable

Natural gas will be fed continuously to the Port Meridian pipeline from the permanently moored FSRU supplied by standard LNG shuttle tankers through ship-to-ship transfer of LNG. Alternatively, connecting Shuttle and Regasification Vessels (SRVs) to the two buoy sites can ensure continuous, intermittent or seasonal send-out of natural gas to the pipeline. According to current plan, first gas can be delivered to the National Grid 4th Quarter 2013. Port Meridian will offer customers new LNG import capacity and thus the possibility for them to diversify their sources and increase the security of supply to their consumers in UK.