France's LNG terminal Fos Cavaou launches open season for 2022-45 capacity

London — French LNG operator Elengy has launched an open season to subscribe for LNG regasification capacity at its Fos Cavaou LNG terminal for the 2022-30 period, with the possibility to register for post-2030 capacity as well.

"The Open Season Fos Cavaou 2021 is initiated in response to a high level of market interest expressed over the past few months, and aims to make available additional primary capacity achieved through technical & regulatory debottlenecking," Elengy said.

Participants will also be able to subscribe to additional capacity beyond 2030.

A capacity of 1 Bcm/year is already available at the Fos terminal until March 31, 2030. The capacity is currently allocated on a "First Come, First Served" basis.

The Open Season Fos Cavaou 2021 will allow for subscriptions of this capacity until 2045 or more.

A first additional capacity of 1.5 Bcm/year will be made available from 2024 owing to technical & regulatory debottlenecking of the facility and marginal investments.

This additional capacity would bring, at minimal additional costs, Fos Cavaou total receiving capacity to up to 10 Bcm/year, throughout 2045 or more.

A second additional capacity of 2.0 Bcm/year may be developed as of 2030, which would bring Fos Cavaou total receiving capacity to up to 12 Bcm/year, throughout 2045 or more.

The Open Season Fos Cavaou will consist of two phases: a first non-binding call for interest, which is expected to last for three months, in order to precisely assess the market needs; followed by a binding Open Season, which is expected during the second semester 2021, in order to perform a market test based on binding commitments of the parties.

The Fos Cavaou terminal, founded in 2010, has an LNG storage capacity of 330,000 cu m and has a regasification capacity of 8.5 Bcm/year since Jan. 1.

Elengy, part of the ENGIE Group, operates three regulated LNG terminals in France: Montoir-de-Bretagne on the Atlantic coast, and Fos Cavaou and Fos Tonkin in the Mediterranean.