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Techint Engineering & Construction

built the largest LNG Terminal

in Europe

The Dunkerque LNG terminal will have an annual regasification capacity
of 12 billion m of gas, representing around 20 per cent of France and Belgium’s
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annual natural gas consumption

inished in September 2016, the Dunkirk pipelines, a critical activity in this type of systems.
LNG Terminal, which Techint Engineering & The construction of the plant also involved a great
Construction built along with Sener for coordinated effort among different areas of Techint E&C,
Électricité de France (EDF), has a including their engineering centers in Buenos Aires, Milan
regasification capacity of 12 billion m per and Mumbai. There had to be a rapid integration among
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F year, sufficient to meet the demand of 9 people from different nationalities, something very
million households. characteristic of the Techint Group, which is constantly
“It is an exceptional terminal,” says Carlos Bacher, the recruiting talent from all over the globe.
company’s CEO, as he looks back at the four and a half
years that the project took. “It has a capacity that
accounts for roughly 3 percent of Europe’s entire energy The kick off
needs and 20 percent of France and Belgium’s natural “This is a historic day for Europe, for France and for our
gas consumption.” companies,” said Carlos Bacher, as he watched the
The scope of this €1 billion project included the design, 285-meter-long Madrid Spirit tanker docking after sailing
engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, 9,000 kilometers during 16 days from Bonny, Nigeria. It
start-up and project management services, requiring was a cloudy Friday morning on July 8, 2016, and, over
more than 11 million hours worked by 8,500 people. the following 10 days, this tanker built in 2004 discharged
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The terminal comprises a reception station; one LNG the first 130,000 m of natural gas at the Dunkerque plant
unloading system; three cryogenic tanks with a storage in northern France near the border with Belgium. “We are
capacity of 190,000 m each; one regasification unit all very proud of the team that did this,” said Bacher. It
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that extracts LNG from the tanks and vaporizes it by heat was the official kick off.
exchange in open-rack vaporizers; one sea water inlet The Hispania Spirit was the second tanker with liquefied
intended for the heating of LNG; and one network natural gas to dock in Dunkerque on September 15. It
connection for supplying the natural gas to the French brought 140,500 m of natural gas from Peru.
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and Belgian networks once reverted to a gaseous state. Finally, the third cargo of liquefied natural gas arrived on
“This was a very big project with constant challenges to November 22, on board of the Maran Gas Asclepius and
face”, says Giuseppe Viggiani, the project’s site hailing from Qatar. With it, the commissioning of the plant
manager since September 2015. “We had to build a really entered the final sprint before the keys to the project are
complex structure, meeting very strict standards and handed over to the client EdF.
requirements, in a huge surface,” he adds. For Techint E&C, having Dunquerke in the portfolio means
In addition, climate conditions did not make things easier. consolidating Techint E&C’s leadership in the regasification
The area in which the terminal is based registers 60 km terminal business: apart from Gate in the Netherland,
per hour winds that impacted on most of the lifting there is Polskie LNG in Poland, Costa Azul in Mexico.
operations. On the other hand, managing 8,500 people, LNG is slowly gaining ground in the continent’s natural
including around 20 subcontractors, was quite challenging gas matrix, and it now represents around 10 percent of
too. It required a very thorough planning and follow-up of the total imports. The gas comes in large vessels like
all tasks in order to secure the progress of the project. For the Madrid Spirit, mostly from Qatar, Algeria and
instance, a key decision was to create a task force made Nigeria. Some 25 LNG terminals were built in the
of people TS LNG and mechanical subcontractor teams continent over the last two decades. Dunkerque now
for the preparation and execution of pressure tests of the joins that league.

IndustrIal Plants - May 2017
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