Britain's Isle of Grain to Test LNG Export Capability

Britain's Isle of Grain liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal will test whether it can also export supply by loading a quantity of fuel onto inbound tanker Asia Vision on Thursday, a spokeswoman for operator National Grid said.

This month National Grid outlined plans to add a reload system for small vessels at Europe's biggest import facility and launched an open season to gauge demand.

The system will allow imported LNG to be loaded back on to different ships for onward delivery to higher-paying markets. Currently, the terminal only imports LNG.

"On Thursday March 26 we will be testing our reloading capabilities by loading a quantity of LNG onto the Asia Vision LNG tanker," National Grid press officer Rebecca Watson said.

The 160,000-cubic-metre-capacity vessel is currently sailing for the terminal from Spain, ship-tracking software on Reuters Eikon showed.

Several LNG-receiving terminals in Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium have already boosted revenue by offering reloads, which allow traders to profit from price differences between European, South American and Asian markets.

Subject to approvals, the new service at Isle of Grain could be available from late 2016.

Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic