Located in Costa Azul, Mexico, south of Tijuana (Baja California), in a high seismic activity zone, this project consisted of the construction of two LNG full containment tanks with a capacity of 160,000 m3 and an unloading dock. These structures were built by VINCI Construction Grands Projets for Sempra Energy, an American natural gas utilities holding company.
To respond to the growing industrial energy needs of the San Diego area (United States), we were commissioned by Sempra to design and build two LNG tanks with a capacity of 160,000 m3 each. The most suitable location to build the industrial port to receive the liquefied gas was 100 km south of San Diego in Mexican territory.
Like all LNG projects, one of the major challenges was planning: completing the project in 33 months (a month less than similar contracts signed around that period) required efficient preparation. For instance, we had to plan orders 10 months in advance for the cryogenic reinforcement bars (the few steelworks in the world manufacturing them were overbooked).
Added to this was the problem of the geographic location of the site. This was a high seismic zone. To prevent the LNG tanks from leaking in the event of an earthquake, the internal steel tanks had to be attached to the base of the external concrete tank using a series of “metal straps” in special steel (known as “cryogenic” because it resists extreme temperatures).
Due to major earthquake risks, the capping beam supporting the interior tank could not be made of insulation blocks as in other projects. A special type of concrete was developed for this beam. This concrete, made with 15% air-entrained light clay aggregate, is light (density of 1.6) for thermal insulation and has a resistance of 13 MPa. The concrete was developed by the project teams after several months of lab testing.
With this civil engineering design and build project, VINCI Construction Grands Projets created the first LNG terminal on the western coast of Central America.
Liquefied natural gas from the tanks, when converted into gas again, is supplied to consumers and electricity producers in Baja California and Southern California. It meets all the quality standards of Mexican pipelines and US gas.
VINCI Construction Grands Projets has been present in the LNG tank construction market for more than 40 years with many projects across the world, often in extreme conditions. Extreme cold, such as the Yamal project and extreme heat, such as the Ras Laffan and Wheatstone projects.
These tanks are not only economic development factors, but also optimise the storage of liquefied natural gas, a non-polluting energy source of which the world has higher reserves than petrol.
To design such reliable tanks for each project, all the designing as well as general and specific tasks are handled by experienced internal resources. Our design-build methods integrate safety measures right from the engineering phase. Our engineers are involved in all the stages, so each project is always designed with the construction in mind.
Client
Sempra Energy
Project management
Foster Wheeler
Implementation dates
January 2005 to November 2007
Concrete
2 x 14,200 m3
Reinforcement
2 x 2,100 t
Prestressing steel
2 x 460,000 kg
“Combining the demanding requirements of an American energy services client with four companies made up of different nationalities and cultures and workers from around the world, the project was a Tower of Babel.”
