Canatxx LNG Waits For Preesall Green Light

by Nathan Daniels
(UK)

Canatxx LNG Limited, which secured permission to build a regasification plant at Amlwch on Anglesey last December, is waiting for a controversial gas storage facility application in Lancashire, England to be given the green light.


The Texas-based energy company plans to unload the liquified natural gas (LNG) from tankers at Amlwch, and pipe the liquid ashore in special cryogenic pipes.

At the regasification plant the LNG evaporates into natural gas using special equipment.

The gas would then be pumped through a 70 mile undersea pipeline in Irish Sea to Preesall, near Fleetwood in north west Lancashire.

A £300m gas storage facility in salt caverns at Preesall would then receive and store this natural gas.

A Canatxx spokesman said the company has permission for the Anglesey stage of the process but cannot complete the project until the Preesall stage catches up.

Plans for storing the natural gas in these salt caverns were thrown out last September, after a public inquiry.

However, after resubmitting the application in June, a succesful outcome should give a new lease of life to the development at Amlwch.

The Anglesey stage of the project would see special mooring platform, two miles offshore, enabling tankers carrying up to 55 million gallons of LNG from the Middle East to dock securely in most weather conditions.

When the Amlwch and Preesall facilities are combined, they would provide a safe, secure and economical environment for delivering gas to boost UK energy needs.

Indeed such a combination, of LNG terminal and gas storage, would be a world first.