The Teesside GasPort near Middlesbrough will allow its Texas based operator Excelerate Energy to deliver at peak rates of up to 600 million cubic feet of natural gas per day to the UK market. The company’s Energy Bridge vessel Excelsior docked alongside a dedicated jetty where it connected to the onshore facility that feeds into the UK gas grid, the National Transmission System (NTS).

Excelerate Energy’s specially designed Energy Bridge vessels allow LNG to be revaporized to gas onboard the ships so that it can be directly fed into natural gas pipelines. Traditional LNG ships must deliver their cargo as liquid to onshore terminals that then convert it to gas. Excelerate Energy’s Teesside GasPort was built with the initial capacity to import up to four LNG cargoes per month, each of which contains approximately three billion cubic feet of natural gas.

In February 2006, Excelerate Energy selected the Teesport location as ideal to quickly allow for additional imports needed to bring more natural gas to the UK market to meet projected supply shortfalls due to a fast decline in offshore production. Just 12 months later, the first cargo has arrived in the newly built GasPort. The total cost of the Teesside GasPort was less than £40m, whereas a conventional land based facility of comparable size would likely cost more than £400m.

Excelerate Energy’s delivery of Excelsior’s cargo to the Teesside GasPort was preceded by the completion of the first ever full cargo commercial transfer of LNG, demonstrating a technology that has dramatic implications for the LNG industry globally.

The transfer took place at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. Prior to arrival at Teesport, the Energy Bridge vessel Excelsior received 132,000 cubic meters of LNG from the conventional vessel Excalibur.

‘This successful transfer marks a turning point for both our company and the LNG industry, said Excelerate Energy president and CEO Kathleen Eisbrenner. ‘Now that we have a proven ability to safely and effectively transfer LNG between conventional LNG ships and our Energy Bridge vessels, our fleet can be deployed as distinct floating terminals, allowing for even further market reach in minimal time frames and with modest cost.’

With the success of this transfer, Excelerate Energy officials expect to open the way for additional cargoes to be transported on conventional LNG ships for increased deliveries of LNG to Excelerate’s Energy Bridge ports.

Support services group Mouchel Parkman worked alongside procurement and construction services provider Murphy Pipelines Ltd during the refurbishment of the disused jetty, which was originally built to handle crude carriers delivering to a former refinery. The jetty’s new concrete bridge, built across two existing piles, is designed to hold a loading tower structure weighing 130 tons.