Flogas Britain, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supplier in the UK, has secured planning permission from the Gloucestershire County Council to convert an existing LNG facility at Avonmouth into a large-scale LPG storage terminal.

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Image: Flogas will convert an existing LNG facility into an LPG storage terminal. Photo: courtesy of Flogas Britain Ltd.

The proposed LPG storage terminal will have a storage capacity of 34,564 tons of the commodity, said Flogas Britain. The LNG facility it will replace was previously owned by the UK National Grid and was only licensed to store liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Through the permissions given by Gloucestershire County Council, the company can change content at the site to enable LPG storage in place of LNG.

National Grid Ventures global transmission president and COO Jon Butterworth said: “As the gas pipeline networks have grown and expanded deeper into the South West and Wales, the site is no longer necessary for National Grid’s business and its consumers.

“I’m enormously proud, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to be hand it over to Flogas Britain, a business with over 30 years of experience of supplying LPG to tens of thousands of customers across the UK.”

According to Flogas Britain, the LPG storage terminal will be the largest of its kind in the country and will considerably boost its LPG storage capability. Further, it will play a role in giving security of supply to commercial and residential customers in the South West and rest of the UK.

The company said that the announcement of the planning permission comes at an important time for the UK energy industry,  as the need to shift away from high carbon fossil fuels gets clear.

Flogas Britain managing director Lee Gannon said: “LPG has an important role to play in delivering the Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, providing off-grid businesses and homeowners with an excellent low carbon, low cost alternative to oil and solid fuels.

“Bringing Avonmouth online will allow us to respond to the rise in demand this will create with an unparalleled, dependable nationwide supply of LPG, while at the same time supporting the UK’s National Infrastructure Delivery Plan.”