The Fos Cavaou LNG terminal has received the green light from the Bouches du Rhône Prefecture to operate at full capacity.

With its 8.25 billion cu.m/year natural gas capacity, Fos Cavaou increases France’s LNG regasification capacity to over 23 billion cu.m/year, thus strengthening the security of the country’s energy supply.

Commissioned April 1, 2010 at 20% of capacity, the new LNG terminal is owned by Société du Terminal Méthanier de Fos Cavaou (STMFC), owned in turn by Elengy (71.9%) and Total (28.1%).

Its operation and maintenance are provided by Elengy, a GDF SUEZ subsidiary that also owns and operates two other LNG terminals in France: Montoir-de-Bretagne (on the Atlantic coast) and Fos Tonkin (on the Mediterranean coast).

The Fos Cavaou terminal has the advantage of a very favorable maritime location at the entrance of the Fos Ouest harbor.

Directly accessible by sea on a round-the-clock basis, the terminal can accommodate tankers transporting up to 220,000 cu.m of LNG and, with three storage tanks, has an LNG storage capacity of 330,000 cu.m.

Source: Elengy, September 2, 2010