France’s Montoir LNG restart delayed by pipeline works

Maintenance at France's 8mn t/yr Montoir LNG import terminal has been repeatedly delayed because of "technical difficulties" relating to the replacement of two sections of a pipeline at the terminal, operator Elengy told Argus.

The pipeline links the gas odorisation station and the GRTgaz grid injection station. Gas in France is odorised at all grid network levels, including transmission, rather than solely distribution networks. The works were completed last week, and the terminal is preparing for its cool-down phase, Elengy said.

The end of works has been delayed nine times, and is now scheduled to restart sendout on 21 August. The terminal has been off line since 15 June, and was initially set to resume sendout on 8 July.

Sendout from the terminal is nominated to average 154 GWh/d for 21-31 August, down from the 240 GWh/d nominated for the period on 19 August, according to Elengy data (see sendout graph). And one delivery for late August has been removed from the schedule (see stocks graph).

By Martin Senior

Montoir sendout nominations

Montoir LNG stocks