In an auction held by National Grid, Iberdrola acquired part of the new capacity at the Isle of Grain liquid natural gas (LNG) importation terminal in Kent. This is Britain’s sole operational onshore LNG regasification plant, which is due to be expanded by an additional 6.7 billion cubic meters a year by 2010.
The Spanish utility commented that the acquisition of the new regasification capacity reflects the new opportunities that the company has been granted as a result of its recent acquisition of ScottishPower.
Iberdrola revealed that the contract will ensure gas supplies to ScottishPower and give Iberdrola a sufficient surplus to optimize its LNG supply portfolio and compete in other international markets.
According to Platts, National Grid has also confirmed that it will proceed with a third phase expansion of the Isle of Grain LNG facility. The industry publication valued the expansion at GBP310 million and said that it would raise capacity by 50% to 14.8 million metric tons of LNG throughput a year by winter 2010 to 2011.
Platts named Centrica, E.ON and Iberdrola as the European utilities backing the expansion project.
