LNG

June 26 (LNGJ) - Gasunie, the Dutch utility and LNG terminals owner in the Netherlands and Germany, has had Diederik Samsom appointed as the Chairman of the Gasunie Supervisory Board by the Dutch Ministry of Finance.

   Samsom is a former leader of the Dutch Labour Party and was the “chef de cabinet” to European Union Commissioner Frans Timmermans from 2019 to 2024. Samsom is an environmental activist and started his career at the radical group Greenpeace where he was campaign manager and joined after studying applied physics at Delft University of Technology.

The 50th anniversary Gastech Exhibition and Conference on LNG, pipeline natural gas and emerging energies entered its third day on Wednesday after serious discussions on the natural gas crisis in Europe, the future of Gazprom's ties with the West and projects to replace Russian gas from regions like the East Mediterranean and Africa.

Avenir LNG has helped organize the first LNG fuel delivery in the German Baltic Sea Port of Lübeck, supplying the TT-Line ferry company’s new RoPax vessel “Nils Holgersson”, which carriers vehicles, passengers and cargo.

Avenir said that to execute the operation it teamed up with Liquind 24/7 GmbH, a leading German LNG infrastructure provide, and Landwärme GmbH, one of Europe’s leading biomethane traders.

The fuel delivered to the “Nils Holgersson” in the bunkering operation was 10 percent BioLNG, made from waste.

Avenir is a joint venture owned by London-based Stolt-Nielsen and shipping company partners Höegh LNG and Golar LNG Ltd and is listed on the Oslo over-the-counter market.

The company said the first bunkering of the supply agreement was the start of a long-term cooperation between Avenir LNG and TT-Line for the supply of LNG and BioLNG to two new RoPax ferries that will transport passengers and cargo between Baltic Sea ports in Sweden, Germany, and Poland.

Avenir noted that population in the in the port of the region would be immediately benefitting from the environmental advantages of these vessels being powered with LNG with much reduced emissions.

“We are excited about this successful first delivery of LNG to TT-Line in Lübeck,” said Peter Mackey, Chief Executive of Avenir LNG.

“The fact that 10 percent of the delivery was Bio-LNG underlines the commitment of all parties involved to reducing emissions of shipping even further through the development of a suitable small-scale LNG infrastructure,” Mackey explained.

“Avenir is committed to the deployment of bunker vessels and the construction of new terminals, to improve the availability of environmentally friendly fuels for our customers across the marine, industry and logistics segments,” stated the Avenir CEO.

Christian Schneider, Managing Director of Liquidind 24/7, said the effective execution of this bunkering operation showed effective cooperation between different small-scale LNG frontrunners.

“Furthermore, the operation showed the logistical and technical capabilities that Liquidind 24/7 has developed in the past few years as a leading alternative fuel infrastructure provider in the German market,” added Schneider.

Landwärme’s CEO Zoltan Elek said that despite existing regulatory barriers BioLNG was the most viable solution for quickly reducing emissions in maritime transport.

“It helps guarantee energy security, as well as independence on the path to carbon neutrality,” added Elek.

Excelerate Energy, the US LNG specialist and a market leader in floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs), saw its shares increase by 11.8 percent in its trading debut after raising $384 million in the biggest US initial public offering since January 2022.

Shares in Excelerate closed on April 13 at $26.85 per share, giving the company a market value of about $2.8 billion based on the outstanding shares listed.

Excelerate shares are now quoted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “EE”.

Excelerate sold 16 million shares at the top of a marketed range of $21 to $24 per share in its IPO.

The share sale came at a time when FLNG project interest is increasing worldwide as nations try to underpin their energy security with fast-track import projects.

The company has pioneered over a dozen import ventures worldwide and has also led the way in ship-to-ship LNG transfers.

Excelerate, based in The Woodlands in Houston in Texas, is part of a privately held US energy group founded by George Kaiser, owner of the Bank of Oklahoma. Kaiser will continue to control the majority of the shares.

Developer

Excelerate developed the Bahia Blanca GasPort, South America’s first LNG import terminal in 2008, and has also operated GNL Escobar, an LNG import terminal along the Paraná River of Argentina, since 2011.

The business spans the globe, with regional offices in eight countries and operations in the US, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The Excelerate prospectus for the IPO informed potential shareholders that it was the largest provider of regasified LNG in Argentina and Bangladesh and one of the largest providers of regasified LNG in Brazil and Pakistan, while also operating the biggest FSRU in Brazil.

The Excelerate company has additionally started FSRU-led import ventures in the US and the Middle East.

Excelerate had net income of $41 million and revenue of $889M in 2021 compared with $33M of profits and $431M in revenues in the previous year.

Leading ship management company V Group has appointed former Shell executive David Taylor as Managing Director of the liquefied natural gas division as it prepares for the expansion of the global LNG fleet.

June 25 (LNGJ) - Poland signed contracts worth $483 million to expand the LNG import terminal at Swinoujscie on the Baltic Sea coast to 6 million tonnes per annum of capacity from the current 3.7 MTPA by 2023. The contract was signed on the Polish side by network operator Gaz-System and the ports of Szczecin and Swinoujscie and on the engineering side by the two contractors, Porr AG of Germany and Bonn-based European LNG specialists TGE Gas Engineering.

   State-run Poland Oil and Gas Company has said it does not intend to extend its long-term pipeline gas supply contract with Russia’s Gazprom beyond 2022 when it expires.

Nov 29 (LNGJ) - Qatar hosted the annual meeting of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators (SIGTTO) under the sponsorship of Qatar Gas Transport Co, the Gulf nation’s LNG shipping operator, known as Nakilat. SIGTTO has more than 170 members, representing nearly all of the world’s LNG operators and more than half the global liquefied petroleum gas business. In addition to hosting the event, Nakilat also participated in the meetings as Chief Executive Abdullah Al Sulaiti is an active Director of SIGTTO. “The state of Qatar has made significant enhancements in the LNG transportation industry, with Nakilat contributing to the improvements and supporting the increasing exports of LNG shipments, while ensuring compliance with the highest levels of safety,” it said.

The International Group of LNG Importers, involving 83 companies, has held a meeting in the Japanese city of Fukuoka and issued a statement on the future role of LNG as a clean and flexible solution for a responsible energy future.

France’s three liquefied natural gas import terminals are being targeted for shutdowns by strikers until May 26 as part of industrial action against labour law reforms in the country that have already led to the closure of oil refineries and petrol stations in actions by truckers.