October 18, 2023 [LNG Prime]- LNG giant Shell has recently delivered a cargo of liquefied natural gas to Avenir LNG’s Higas terminal located on the Italian island of Sardinia, becoming the first third-party supplier of LNG to the small-scale facility in Oristano.

UK-based small-scale player Avenir announced this in a social media post on Tuesday.

Shell supplied 6,000 cbm of LNG to the facility on October 7 with the bunkering and supply vessel, Coral Methane.

“Due to our complementary LNG positions in the Mediterranean, we were able to optimize our respective supply chains and further enhance energy security for the island,” Avenir said.

Avenir did not provide any additional information.

Coral Methane mainly works in the Mediterranean

Shell charters the 7,500-cbm Coral Methane from Dutch shipping firm Anthony Veder and the vessel mostly operates in the Mediterranean Sea.

Moreover, the vessel mostly loads LNG at the Enagas-operated LNG terminals in Spain, according to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue.

Prior to visiting the Higas terminal, Coral Methane delivered liquefied natural gas to the LNG-powered cruise ship Silver Nova, owned by Royal Caribbean Group’s Silversea Cruises, in the port of Gibraltar.

The operation took place on September 24 and Shell claims this is the first-ever cruise ship LNG bunkering in the port of Gibraltar.

Avenir’s small-scale terminal received first cargo in 2021

On the other hand, Avenir became the sole owner of the Higas terminal last year after it bought a 10 percent stake in the terminal from Italian engineering firm Heat and also a 10 percent stake from CPL Concordia.

Gas and Heat was also the EPC contractor for the Higas storage, regasification and distribution facility in the port of Oristano that received its first shipment from the 7,500-cbm Avenir Accolade in May 2021.

In January 2022, Avenir’s 7,500-cbm bunkering and supply vessel, Avenir Aspiration, started serving the terminal in Sardinia.

The facility features six horizontal low-pressure cryogenic type C tank storage tanks with a total capacity of 10,800 cbm.

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