Tenerife LNG Terminal

This article is part of the Global Fossil Infrastructure Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor and the Center for Media and Democracy.

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Tenerife LNG Terminal is a liquified natural gas (LNG) terminal under construction in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

Location

The LNG terminal is located in the Canary Islands at Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.

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Project Details

• Owner: Gascan
• Location: Granadilla de Abona, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain
• Coordinates: 28.116667, -16.566667 (approximate)
• Capacity: 1 mtpa, 0.14 bcfd, 2 bcm/year
• Status: Construction
• Type: Import
• Start Year: 2021

Note: mtpa = million tonnes per year; bcfd = billion cubic feet per day

Background

Tenerife LNG Terminal is a proposed LNG regasification terminal in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain. It will have a nominal capacity of 1.3 bcm/ year, with plans to increase capacity to 2 bcm/year in the future.

In December 2008, Gascan awarded a consortium formed by Tecnicas Reunidas and Acciona a contract on a "lump sum turnkey" basis for the construction of the Tenerife LNG terminal and the Gran Canaria LNG Terminal.

The Tenerife LNG terminal is technically identical to the Gran Canaria LNG Terminal. It is planned to include a storage tank with a capacity of 150,000 m³, three low pressure pumps, three high pressure pumps, two lines of Open Rack Vaporizers and a back-up submerged combustion vaporizer, a flare for emergency discharges, buildings, and a jetty capable to receive LNG carriers with a capacity up to 145,000 m³. The project was expected to cost approximately €300 million. A second, similarly-sized storage tank is planned to be added in a second phase of development.

After development stalled, it was relaunched in 2012 with an expected completion date by the start of 2015 after intervention by Spanish energy minister José Manuel Soria.

In November 2014, the port of Tenerife was awarded a €400,000 grant from the European Union to conduct a year-long feasibility study on constructing an LNG bunkering hub.

In February 2017, Spanish natural gas grid owner and operator Enagás announced it planned to invest €260 million in the Tenerife LNG Terminal.

Opposition

In April 2015, the Supreme Court of Spain issued judgment No. 154, resulting in the project construction being halted. The decision upheld an application by local ecologists that argued that the project developers failed to complete a full environmental assessment prior to securing planning permission.

Opposition groups have cited the low utilization rates among Spain's LNG terminals to call into question the necessity of such extensive LNG infrastructure. According to Food and Water Europe, "Since 2008, all LNG terminals (except for Mugardos) have been expanded and the total regasification capacity has increased by 8%, despite a decline in gas demand...even though the utilisation rate of Spain’s LNG regasification capacity was at only ~23% on average between January 2012 and March 2019, same as the low EU average during the same time period! The need to have so much LNG regasification capacity is questionable and best illustrated with the El Musel LNG Terminal (7bcm/y and a 300,000m³ storage capacity) which was completed in 2012 and then directly put into 'hibernation', 'until demand picks up'. The terminal has not been used since then. Despite large underutilization, Spain was the 5th biggest LNG importer with the 5th biggest liquefaction capacities worldwide in 2018, and for both cases number 1 in Europe (followed by France). Since at least 2016, Spain repeatedly imported cargoes of fracked US gas through its LNG terminals."