LNG

Elenger, the energy company in the Baltic state of Estonia, has taken delivery of the first of a Damen Shipyard-built liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel, the first LNG fuel supplier deployed in the Gulf of Finland to serve ships and shoreside small-scale customers.

The “Optimus” is 100-metres in length with 6,000 cubic metres of capacity in two type-C tanks.

The deployment of the ship involved multinational efforts from project participants in China, Estonia, Russia, the Netherlands and France.

“Its introduction is expected to accelerate the wider adoption of LNG as a cleaner alternative fuel in the Baltic Sea by providing a mobile and efficient ship-to-ship distribution service for the first time,” said Elenger.

The vessel loaded LNG in the port at Vysotsk island in Russia and headed to Tallinn in Estonia.

The bunkering vessel was built in China at the Damen Shipyard in Yichang City, located on the left bank of the Yangtze River.

The construction was overseen by French classification society Bureau Veritas.

Gas trials for the “Optimus” were completed in the Damen Verolme shipyard in the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The owner of the “Optimus” is Estonian investment company Infortar and Elenger is the charterer.

“Optimus is designed to meet the requirements of ICE class 1A certification and to achieve green ship notation,” said Elenger.

“A dual-fuel propulsion system is used for the management of the boil-off gas in combination with a gas boiler system, and the interior of the vessel features high-quality accommodation for her crew,” added the company.

“With this first LNG bunkering vessel, Elenger has significantly expanded its LNG distribution business in the Baltic region,” said the company.

It has been supplying one of the leading regional ferry companies, Tallink Group, for the past five years, refuelling its LNG-fuelled RoPax ferry “Megastar” using multiple specialist trucks.

The “Megastar “will be one of the first beneficiaries of the arrival of “Optimus”, followed in spring 2022 by Tallink’s new LNG-fuelled RoPax ferry “MyStar”.

Ain Hanschmidt, Chief Executive of the Estonian-based owners, investment firm Infortar, said its strategy is to invest in safe and sustainable LNG supply for various maritime customers in the Gulf of Finland region.

The construction of the “Optimus” was supported by the European Union Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding programme and was co-financed by the leading financial services group in Finland, OP Financial Group.

Polish Oil and Gas has signed a contract with South Korean company LG Chem group to set up a liquefied natural gas regasification facility near its factory in Wroclaw in southwest Poland producing batteries for electric vehicles.

The liquefied natural gas import terminal at Dunkirk on the French Channel Coast has opened its truck-loading bay as small-scale LNG and fuel usage increases in Europe.

“Ship owners and haulage companies as well as remote industry increasingly choose LNG as alternative low emission fuel. Their supply can now be sourced from the Dunkirk LNG terminal,” said the French Dunkerque LNG operating company .

Following its commercial entry into service, the newly commissioned truck-loading bay at the Dunkirk terminal offers a loading capacity of 3,000 slots per year.

The Dunkirk import facility is owned and operated by Dunkerque LNG, a company 61 percent held by a consortium including Belgian gas infrastructure group Fluxys, as well as funds such as AXA Investment Managers on behalf of its clients and France’s Crédit Agricole Assurances.

A further 39 percent is owned by a consortium of South Korean investors led by IPM Group in cooperation with Samsung Asset Management.

Juan Vazquez, Chief Executive of Dunkerque LNG, said he was delighted with the start-up of services for the trucking industry.

“This project has successfully come to fruition through our collaboration with the Port of Dunkirk, one of our main partners in the development of this new service,” explained Vazquez.

“With a capacity of almost 2,000 loading slots available between now and the end of the year, our first bay is ready to welcome customers,” stated the CEO.

The company said the service was straightforward and trucking customers can book loading slots online 24/7.

“After online training, drivers can fully autonomously load LNG in just one hour and 30 minutes thanks to a flow rate of 50 cubic metres per hour,” said Dunkerque LNG.

“The increasing demand for cleaner energy in maritime and road transport as well as in the industrial sector has brought LNG to the forefront as an attractive alternative due to its low emission profile,” added the company.

The terminal is located alongside Dunkirk's Western Harbour and began importing cargoes in 2016.

The jetty is large enough to enable the unloading and reloading of the largest LNG carriers up to 266,000 cubic metres capacity and it has three tanks. each with 200,000 cubic metres of storage.

Fluxys Belgium reported record activity levels at the Zeebrugge liquefied natural gas import terminal in its first-half earnings for its regulated business and pointed out that the recent signing of a new capacity agreement with Qatar guarantees long-term stability in LNG carrier traffic.

Sept 11 (LNGJ) - OLT Offshore LNG Toscana’s terminal offshore the west coast of Italy will work at 100 percent of its capacity with 41 slots being used for the Gas Year 2019-2020 with the total allocated capacity amounting to 6.3 million cubic metres. “This confirms the effectiveness of the new allocation capacity mechanism via auctions introduced in 2018, which makes the regasification sector more flexible and in line with market demands, both for the spot market and the long-term and medium-term ones,” said OLT Offshore.

   The “FSRU Toscana” offshore the port of Livorno will also be increasing the small-scale services available once modifications are completed. Small-scale commercial activities are expected to begin in 2021, allowing slots for small carriers to deliver LNG into storage under construction at regional ports for services such as the provision of trucking fuel and bunkering.