The Port of Drammen in Norway is working with Finnish state-owned gas company Gasum to explore the possibility of bunkering bioLNG at the port.
Located at the head of the Drammensfjorden, outside Oslo, the port is not far from Gasum's LNG terminal at the Øra industrial site near Fredrikstad.
“Vice President of the Gasum Maritime Department, Jacob Granqvist, confirms that the company is studying the possibility of bunkering biogas at the port of Drammen,” a spokesperson for the port authority said. “Of course, we are very positive about this.”
Auto Energy refuels
The move follows the successful completion of the inaugural LNG bunkering operation at the port of Drammen earlier this year.
Gasum worked with shipping line United European Car Carriers’ (UECC) to bunker its hybrid pure car and truck carrier (PCTC) in late March. Named Auto Energy, the vessel can run on LNG and battery power and the refuelling operation involved the transfer of around 70 tonnes of LNG onto the vessel.
Gasum's LNG terminal in Øra provides nearby industries with natural gas through a local pipeline grid and delivers LNG by truck to Sweden as well as eastern parts of Norway. The terminal is a large tank park consisting of nine tanks with combined storage capacity of 5,900 cubic metres of LNG.
Shift to renewable gas
Gasum announced plans to bring 7 TWh of renewable gas to the market annually by 2027, as part of a new strategy launched in 2022, emphasizing a shift towards renewable gas and electricity. The company plans to increase its own biogas production and source more renewable gas from trusted partners. Gasum currently operates 17 biogas plants in Finland and Sweden, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 90%. The Nordic region produces around 12 TWh of biogas yearly, with Denmark being the largest producer at 8 TWh.
“There is still much to do to decarbonize land and sea transportation as well as industrial processes. Increasing biogas availability in these segments is a way of reducing emissions sooner rather than later. The switch to biogas can happen almost at the snap of your fingers, because biogas is fully interchangeable with natural gas wherever it is currently used”, Mika Wiljanen, CEO of Gasum said.
Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Gasum provides integrated gas services across the Nordic region and northern Europe. The firm is also the transmission system operator of the natural gas grid of Finland, a natural gas importer and seller and biogas refiner in Finland and Sweden.
