Port of Bilbao welcomes its 1,000th LNG carrier

The Rioja Knutsen docked at the BBG jetty in the early hours of 20 January from the US, and remained there for 24 hours until the 164,000 metre-cubed (m3) of LNG it was carrying was unloaded.

The vessel is an Atlantic Max 2G type LNG tanker, capable of transporting in its cryogenic holds liquefied gas maintained at a temperature of -163º C. Owned by Knutsen OAS Shipping, the tanker is 290 metres long, 46.4 metres wide, was built in 2016 in South Korea and sails under the Spanish flag.

Natural gas retailers that buy gas at source have opted for BBG due to the plant’s flexibility and capacity to accommodate increasingly efficient and larger vessels, such as the so-called Q-Max, the largest LNG carriers in the world capable of transporting up to 267,000 m3 of LNG in their holds. This traffic is also a key driver for the Port of Bilbao, accounting for over 10 per cent of its total freight traffic.

The three BBG storage tanks, each one with a capacity of 150,000 m3 (the third tank was commissioned in 2015), provide a total storage capacity of 450,000 m3 of LNG. The regasification (returning the LNG to a gaseous state) capacity of the plant is 800,000 Nm3/h, and the gas is subsequently fed into the general supply network for consumption.

BBG is co-owned by Ente Vasco de la Energía / The Basque Energy Agency, which was also the original promoter of the project, and the operator Enagás, both of which hold a 50 per cent shareholding. In 2024, the plant welcomed a total of 49 methane tankers carrying 7.84 million cubic metres of LNG, equivalent to 3.4 million tonnes. In addition, BBG regasified a total of 50,887.4 GWh.

Last year, demand for natural gas fell by 4.2 per cent in the whole of Spain compared to the previous year, mainly due to a 21.9 per cent drop in gas demand for power generation. However, conventional demand increased by 3.1 per cent compared to the previous year. In terms of natural gas supplies, 62 per cent was supplied by LNG.

Within the gas system, BBG increased its share by receiving 27.24 per cent of the total LNG entering the system, up from 22 per cent the previous year. The plant also covered 200 per cent of the demand for natural gas in the Basque Country and 16 per cent of the demand for natural gas in Spain as a whole, thus achieving its primary mission of ensuring supply to the Basque Country and bolstering the Spanish gas system.

The BBG regasification facilities achieved the highest utilisation rate in the system, at 62.3 per cent. Provisional financial results show an EBITDA of €23.3 million ($24 million) and net profits of €16.6 million ($17 million).

Late last year, the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed an €80 million ($83.9 million) loan with the Port Authority of Bilbao to finance the expansion and electrification of the Port of Bilbao.