French unions to temporarily shut down all LNG terminals in protest

Industrial action by employees of French energy firm Elengy has halted all LNG operations at three import facilities from today until March 14, Elengy said, Report informs referring to Argus media.

A "total shutdown of the three Elengy terminals started today at 1pm CET", Elengy told Argus, with no cargo unloadings, LNG storage utilisation, regasification and small-scale operations until March 14. Elengy operates the 8mn t/yr Montoir, 2.2mn t/yr Fos Tonkin and 6.6mn t/yr Fos Cavaou import facilities.

At least one LNG carrier has been diverted from Fos Cavaou, heading instead to the UK's 14.8mn t/yr Isle of Grain terminal. The 135,000m³ LNG Sokoto had been set to arrive at Fos Cavaou on 11 March, but was diverted on March 4 for Grain. The 173,400m³ Maran Gas Olympias was offshore Montoir and was yet to unload, having arrived on March 4.

At least two more carriers were still declaring for arrival at Elengy facilities in the coming days, with the 174,000m³ Minerva Amorgos declaring for Fos Cavaou on March 9 and the 74,100m³ Global Energy for Fos Tonkin on March 7.

The strikes will also halt LNG sendout to the French grid. Aggregate regasification at the French terminals rose to 1.2 TWh/d on March 1-5, from 940 GWh/d in February.

The extent of the effect of the industrial action on France's fourth import terminal, the 12.4mn t/yr Dunkirk facility, remains unclear. Operator Fluxys did not respond to Argus' request for comment, but market participants said small-scale LNG truck loading operations could possibly be affected.

Small-scale LNG truck loadings at Montoir, Fos Cavaou and Fos Tonkin have also been halted during the strike.

Some firms that receive truck loadings at these terminals have had to seek LNG from other terminals in the region, but spare capacity in northwest Europe and Italy at short notice remains limited, market participants said. The Dunkirk terminal has stopped "assisted" truck loading operations but is still permitting self-loading operations, which could slow loadings at the facility, market participants said. And Italy's small-scale Ravenna terminal is fully contracted and no slots are available in the next week, they said.

Small-scale customers may seek to use Spanish terminals, but may be deterred by longer distances to northwest Europe. Otherwise, firms could use facilities at the Dutch 8.7mn t/yr Gate and Belgian 7.2mn t/yr Zeebrugge terminals to meet requirements.