LNG

Gasum of Finland, the Nordic LNG fuel terminal network operator supplying the shipping, trucking and power sectors reported large declines in nine-month after-tax profits and revenues as it felt the full impacts of Covid-19 and the resultant economic slowdown.

Gasum’s nine-month profits after taxes plunged to €1.6 million ($1.8M) from €8.3M in the same period of 2019.

The company also posted a drop in nine-month revenue to €448.9M from €698.2M in the same period of 2019.

Operating profits almost halved to €12.8M from €22.4M in the same period of last year.

”Our financial performance during the reporting period was almost in line with our expectations despite the uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and there was steady demand for gas solutions,” said Chief Executive Johanna Lamminen.

“The impacts of the pandemic were seen in our business, primarily with regard to the growth targets we set. Lockdowns caused us to push back with bringing our new plants into use and at the same time our customers have also delayed their projects, which in turn has impacted the start-up of Gasum’s deliveries,” she explained.

Gasum is owned by the government of Finland and has five LNG bunkering vessels in operation and several LNG terminals and plants in Nordic region.

“Revenue and operating profit were primarily affected by the price trend of gas in Europe,” said CEO Lamminen.

Gasum owns a network of LNG import terminals, a liquefaction plant and an expanding chain of LNG fuel stations for vehicles in the Nordic region.

Its terminals include Sweden’s Nynashamn small-scale facility with 20,000 cubic metres capacity of storage and purchased in April 2020 by Gasum from Germany’s Linde AG.

The Finnish company also has a small-scale liquefaction plant in Risavika, near Stavanger in Norway, in addition to owning and operating other small regasification and import terminals in Ora and Alesund in Norway and Lysekil in Sweden.

It also partly owns the Pori LNG import terminal in Finland and has a stake in the Finnish Tornio Magna regasification facility.

The Tornio terminal in Northern Finland is the largest in the Nordic region.

It is located on the Swedish border which allows it to serve Gasum’s customers in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

The company continues to build its business and in third-quarter 2020 highlights it cited some new contracts.

“We secured a contract with Norwegian reinforced steel manufacturer Celsa Armeringsstal in Mo i Rana, to supply LNG from the Tornio terminal and to build a new customer terminal in Mo Industrial Park,” explained Lamminen.

“Switching to LNG will contribute to the company’s target of lowering carbon-dioxide emissions originating in its operations,” she added.

Gasum also noted the completion of several LNG bunkering operations in maritime transport to new customers in the Nordic countries and in Germany.

Gasum said it continued to expand the Nordic gas filling station network to serve heavy-duty transport.

“We opened gas filling stations in Gothenburg, Sweden and Lieto, Finland,” said the company.

“Our expanding gas filling station network is creating interest in gas from growing numbers of actors and Vekka Group, for example, introduced six biogas-powered buses into operations in Hämeenlinna in August,” it added.

After the third-quarter reporting period ended, Gasum said it had signed a cooperation agreement with Pavilion Energy of Singapore to develop a global LNG bunkering supply network for customers in Singapore and Northern Europe, including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp.

Under a memorandum of understanding, the Asian and Nordic partners said they had agreed to leverage each other’s LNG bunkering infrastructure and supply capabilities to provide global supply points for customers.

As a licensed LNG importer and bunker supplier for Singapore, Pavilion has taken several firm steps to invest in and support Singapore’s LNG bunker readiness. The company is a subsidiary of the city-state’s wealth fund Temasek.

Gasum is owned by the government of Finland and has five LNG bunkering vessels in operation.

The Finnish gas market has opened up to competition with a wholesale market for pipeline natural gas after the transmission network was unbundled from LNG and gas firm Gasum.