Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company of Manila Inc. (AG&P), a downstream gas and LNG logistics firm and ADNOC Logistics and Services (ADNOC L&S) have signed an agreement for the conversion, supply, operations and maintenance of a floating storage unit (FSU) at AG&P’s new LNG import facility located within Karaikal Port in Puducherry.
The 1,37,756 cubic meter FSU, owned by ADNOC L&S, is being chartered for 15 years through a commercial model enabling supply to be scaled to match demand.
Construction of the terminal will begin shortly with commercial operations expected to commence before the end of 2021.
The Karaikal FSU will be only the fourth FSU-based LNG import terminal in the world after those in Malta, Malaysia and Bahrain.
ADNOC L&S will provide a Japan-built, Moss-type containment vessel as FSU for the project from its fleet of eight LNG ships.
Abdulkareem Al Masabi, CEO of ADNOC L&S said, “It is also an important agreement because it provides AG&P with additional storage flexibility for their LNG terminal as well as giving us the chance to generate more value from one of our historical assets which is coming to the end of its current contract.”
Owned and operated by AG&P, the LNG import facility at the Karaikal Port will have an initial capacity of one million tonnes per annum (MTPA) which will be expanded to three MTPA in the medium term as demand increases.
The terminal will serve domestic, industrial and commercial customers within a 500-km radius, including the heavily-industrialised region of central Tamil Nadu, which has major manufacturing clusters for fertilizer, cement, steel, textile, leather, sugar and garment industries.
In addition, it will serve gas-fired power plants as well as AG&P’s own extensive city gas distribution network across South India.
Karthik Sathyamoorthy, president, AG&P Terminals & Logistics, said: “ Both of our companies will work very closely to provide a comprehensive LNG solution for our downstream customers through the Karaikal LNG Facility. AG&P has focused on bringing down the unit cost of re-gasification terminals for smaller volumes.”
