Monday, June 13 at 2:00 AM, the British ship called British Trader, belonging to the BP Shipping Company and capable of carrying up to 130,000 m3 of liquefied natural gas (LNG), docked at Gate terminal, the regasification plant located in the city of Rotterdam (the Netherlands). The British Trader is the first boat to berth in the plant, which has entered its commissioning phase and is expected to enter into commercial operation in September 2011.

Gate terminal is a turnkey project that SENER has developed in Rotterdam as a part of the TSEV consortium. Within this consortium, made up of the Joint Venture TS LNG, which in turn consists of SENER and Techint, and the sub-consortium EV (comprising the companies Entrepose and Vinci), SENER is responsible for managing the plant’s implementation, as well as for basic engineering and most of the project’s detail engineering. Since this project began, special attention has been paid to safety, protecting the environment, operational availability and versatility.

Located in the Maasvlakte district of Rotterdam, Gate terminal will initially include three 180,000-m3/h storage tanks, with capacity for exporting 12 BCMA (Billion Cubic Meters per Annum) of natural gas. The terminal has two jetties, an unloading area, a storage and pumping area (with three 180.000-m3 tanks), the regasification and delivery area, auxiliary services and the complex of buildings (offices, control, security, workshops, etc.) required for the operation.

The arrival of the first ship at the terminal and the subsequent offloading of 130,000 m3 of liquefied natural gas was a successful step forward in the project’s implementation process. “The successful docking of the British Trader is excellent news for the whole team of professionals who have been working enthusiastically for the last three years to make sure the plant matches its ambitious design,” explained SENER’s Project Manager, Roberto Felipe Rodríguez, “with barely three months left until the plant enters into commercial operation, we can claim that this construction phase has been completed with one of the highest levels of safety ever recorded for works implemented in Rotterdam’s Europort, boasting more than 2,500,000 work hours without accidents, currently at Low Level A. All of the equipment tested in this last phase are functioning efficiently and, without a doubt, the plant will be a benchmark of design and construction within the international LNG market.”

The TS LNG consortium, composed of SENER and Techint, is consolidating its presence as a company specializing in liquefied natural gas regasification plants. In addition to its participation in Gate terminal, it has also recently announced that the Dunkerque regasification plant in France has been awarded “turnkey” status.

About SENER
SENER is a private engineering and technology group founded in Bilbao in 1956 which offers clients cutting-edge technological solutions and enjoys international recognition by virtue of its commitment to innovation and quality and its independence. SENER has a workforce of more than 5,000 professionals and a turnover of 1,066 million Euros.

SENER engages in the specific activities of engineering, and also has industrial holdings in companies involved in Energy and Environment, as well as Aerospace. The Engineering Division, SENER Ingeniería y Sistemas, S.A. is an engineering, construction and systems integration company which has become one of the leading Spanish engineering firms, with a turnover of more than 624 million Euros, around 2,200 employees and offices in Abu Dhabi, Algiers, Barcelona, Bilbao, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Okayama, San Francisco, Seville, Valencia and Warsaw.

In the Power and Process activity, SENER is actively present in the gas sector, where it implements EPC contracts for regasification plants, such as the expansion of the Sagunto plant, the Castor project and, through TS LNG (a joint venture of the Techint and SENER companies), the EPC contract for the GATE Terminal, to which it has now added the Dunkeque regasification plant in France.