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In ancient times Sagunto, a city situated on the eastern Mediterranean shores of Spain, was already a large and prosperous town trading with Greek and Phoenician coastal colonies. Whereas in the city itself there can still be found some remains of this era, the most modern part of the city is by now its harbour area, Port of Sagunto.
Here, in April 2006, a new Import Terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) was officially opened after a three-year construction period. The project then consisted of a jetty for the special LNG-transport ships, a re-gas facility and two LNG tanks with 150,000 m³ storage capacity each.
At that time, the owner SAGGAS already had solid plans for the extension of the storage capacity. SAGGAS is a Company consisting of three big Spanish energy groups (Unión Fenosa Gas, Iberdrola, Endesa Generación and on the supplier’s side the Oman Oil Holding Spain). The plans were realised in September 2006 by starting the construction of the third tank. The third tank also consists of a concrete outer tank and a 9 % Ni steel inner tank with a storage capacity of again 150,000 m³.
Thus, at the beginning of 2009, the import terminal was equipped with a storage capacity of 450,000 m³.
While designing LNG tanks the whole facility has to be considered. Unlike some areas of structural engineering, consideration of individual elements is not possible.
The components of the tanks, the concrete outer tank and the 9 % Ni steel inner tank, have to be seen as one system. Because of this complexity, a considerable amount of time is required before the actual construction start.
All three tanks were constructed by the Joint Venture UTE, consisting of ACS, Cobra, Toyo Kanetsu and DYWIDAG International GmbH. This cooperation has become even more successful over the years as experience and developments were openly communicated and implemented in the subsequent works. Within the Joint Venture, DYWIDAG International is responsible for the Design & Engineering of the concrete outer tanks applying their long-time, highly specialized know-how to ensure conformity with the high safety requirements for LNG tanks.
Increasing demand in the environmentally friendly energy source natural gas induced SAGGAS to further extend its storage capacity. Hence, in January 2009, the same group of companies was also awarded the construction of the fourth 150,000 m³ tank with an option for Tank 5.
Construction of the fourth tank started in March 2009 and is scheduled for completion in mid 2011. An important milestone was reached on May 12, 2010: the steel roof raising of Tank 4 with overpressure in only 3 hours, two months ahead of schedule.
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