LNG

Mahanagar Gas Limited (MGL), the growing Indian city-gas distribution company, has signed an agreement with Baidyanath LNG (BLNG) to give some momentum to the expansion of a liquefied natural gas fuel station network with a build-out starting from the western state of Maharashtra.

MGL, which is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, is the sole authorized distributor of compressed natural gas (CNG) and Pipeline Natural gas (PNG) in the city of Mumbai and its adjoining areas as well as in the city of Raigarh, located in the land-locked central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

BLNG is an LNG fuel pioneer and opened India’s first LNG fuel station almost two years ago at Dighori and which was aimed at LNG-powered vehicles using the national highways around Nagpur, one of the main cities in Maharashtra.

Until the BLNG fuel station opened, the only LNG fuelling point were at India’s LNG import terminals where truck-loading stations are open to contracted customers only, though cannot supply random members of the public.

Infrastructure

“We are pleased to enter into this arrangement with BLNG for development of LNG infrastructure,” said Ashu Shinghal, Managing Director, of MGL.

“Both parties have their own set of skills and capabilities which can be harnessed to offer seamless solutions to the customers. MGL has always played a constructive role in the development of an environment which can facilitate faster adoption of cleaner fuel,” explained Shinghal.

MGL already has city-gas connectivity to approximately 2.07 million domestic households, which is a high figure for India, and operates about 300 filling stations mainly selling compressed natural gas (CNG).

The company additionally has more than 6,400 kilometres of pipelines and associated infrastructure.

BLNG Chief Executive Vaddadi Subbarao said he was delighted to enter into this agreement with MGL for the development of an LNG corridor to be initially focused on the Maharashtra region.

“This agreement provides us with an added impetus in our mission to create a wide network of these LNG stations across Maharashtra. We look forward to enabling India’s mission of decarbonizing heavy trucking by ensuring uninterrupted LNG supply on key trucking routes,” Subbarao explained.

The Baidyanath group, a private company, distributes medicines, food and cosmetics as the main part of company activities.

While its energy unit operates just two LNG fuel stations at the moment it plans to set up around 15 stations in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

MGL in addition to being BSE-listed counts among its shareholders Gas Authority of India (GAIL) with a 32.5 percent stake and the government of the state of Maharashtra, which owns 10 percent of MGL. 

Scandinavian Biogas, a Swedish producer of BioLNG has signed a long-term supply agreement with German filling station owner Alternoil GmbH, which has 40 LNG stations in its network.

Grupo Ham of Spain has opened its 100th liquefied natural gas filling station and now operates around 25 percent of existing facilities in Europe for LNG-powered trucks and other vehicles.

The Ham group said the latest LNG filling station was opened in Saint Quentin Fallavier in southeast France, reaffirming its leading role in the vehicular natural gas sector in the European Union and elsewhere.

The company’s network of LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG) facilities is expanding in a growing number of countries with more than 30 in Spain and the others spread around the EU with most of them located in Spain, France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.

Ham has also established an LNG-CNG foothold in South America with filling stations in Chile and Peru.

“A report from the Association of Natural Gas and Biogas Vehicles, noted that in Europe there are 400 service stations that allow LNG refuelling and on one in four of facilities have been designed, built and commissioned by HAM, many of them being owned by us and forming part our network of service stations,” said the company.

Ham has also started developing networks in the newer entrants to the EU such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Poland and Slovakia, as well as non-EU countries like the UK and Switzerland.

“HAM as a trucking company as well was a pioneer in Spain in 2000 when it added to its fleet of 10 trucks, acquired in the US and powered by LNG, taking on a major environmental challenge with the aim of reducing polluting emissions and also building the first vehicular LNG plant in Europe for the refuelling of these vehicles,” explained the Barcelona-based company.

“Later, in 2009 we designed and built the first public vehicular natural gas service station in Spain, located in Abrera, Barcelona,” it added.

“We continue to bet on Vehicular Natural Gas, a rapidly developing market with great potential to achieve the decarbonisation of road transport,” stated Ham.

The company is also developing new concepts of fixed and mobile service stations, allowing easier expansion of the network.

Ham is also committed to adopting bio-LNG made from waste and will make more of it available over time.

“At Grupo HAM we continue to work and innovate, always working in direct contact with our customers, to offer the best products and services that adapt to their real energy needs,” declared the company.

Gazprom has held a virtual commissioning ceremony for the first production Train at the Amur Gas Processing Plant, one of the world’s largest and part of the “Power of Siberia” project comprising pipeline natural gas for China and LNG for trucks transporting liquid helium as a new Russian Far East export.

Demark is ready to enter the liquefied natural fuel market with the opening before the end of 2021 of the nation’s first LNG filling station in the city of Padborg, one of Europe’s busiest transport hubs with over 7,000 trucks passing through each day in what is a key junction for the transport of goods between Scandinavia and the rest of Europe.

The new station, which will be able to accommodate all types of trucks, will be located at Q8’s IDS station in Padborg, right next to the major Danish-German highway right on the border.

“Here at Q8, we have one clear goal for this project. We want to help our customers start a sustainable transition of their transportation,” said Gert Thomasen, Head of Fleet and International Diesel Service at Q8 Denmark.

“We are seeing a growing demand for sustainable solutions, and more companies now demand that their goods be transported using more sustainable energy sources, such as gas,” explained Thomasen.

“We want to enable our customers to get that transition going, and LNG is a highly relevant alternative for heavy transport, which can’t just be converted to electric overnight,” he stated.

The station in Padborg will be fully automatic, requiring no operator and the truck driver will be able to fill up his own tanks in just a few minutes.

The technical solution will be delivered in collaboration with the Dutch company LIQAL.

Bunkering and LNG fuel services company KC LNG, part of Denmark’s Makeen Energy, will deliver the station as a turnkey project, handling everything from project management to civil works and installation.

“The facility will also be delivered with an advanced online surveillance system that maximizes safety and user experience,” said a statement.

The companies developing the first Danish LNG filling station noted that around 30,000 diesel-powered trucks occupy the roads of Denmark every day, emitting significant amounts of carbon-dioxide.

“To steer the heavy road transport sector in a greener direction, it is, therefore, essential to transition to cleaner, more sustainable fuels,” they said.

“Therefore, Q8 has chosen to take the first step with this project, aiming to make it easier for North European freight companies to invest in cleaner technology,” they declared.

The LNG station in Padborg will be part of a European network as Q8’s IDS has 25 other European Union locations that also offer LNG.

Gazprom said the Svobodny thermal power plant has started up to serve the Amur Gas Processing Plant, one of the world’s largest and part of the “Power of Siberia” project comprising pipeline gas for China and LNG for trucks transporting liquid helium as a new Russian Far East export.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., the LNG and compressed natural gas filling station company with a network of 550 stations across the US and Canada and partly owned by French major Total, has signed multiple station expansion and supply contracts to accommodate demand for ultra-low carbon fuel for trucks and buses.

Liqvis GmbH, the liquefied natural gas fuel subsidiary of German utility Uniper, has opened its second LNG filling station near the city of Kassel on the A7 motorway and another seven are being constructed or planned.

Trucking companies in Germany do not have to pay motorway tolls if they have natural gas fuel and Liqvis said the exemption was proving effective in getting companies to switch from the more pollutant diesel.

The latest station in the state of Hesse in central Germany adds to the first one previously opened in Grünheide near Berlin.

Liqvis, based in the German city of Essen, said the Kassel station on the A7 between the Kassel-Mitte interchange and the Kassel-Süd triangle was built in just about four months and is open 24 hours a day.

Kassel previously had a mobile station to dispense LNG and that is now being moved from Kassel to Hamm in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia to expand the LNG fuel network.

“The Kassel location in the centre of Germany made the site a hotspot for long-haul heavy trucks, as previously demonstrated by the high demand at the mobile station,” said Liqvis.

“The new station will make refueling faster and more convenient for customers,” the company added.

“Two trucks can now be refueled at the same time, and in the future this could even be increased to four,” explained Liqvis.

The Uniper unit’s LNG station network will also spread into other European Union countries, including France with a facility at the Channel port of Calais.

The Calais station is already under construction and among other sites chosen for stations in Germany are Rosengarten near Hamburg and Langenhagen near Hanover.

“Thanks in no small part to the toll exemption in Germany, LNG has established itself as a fuel on the market over the last three years, which can be seen in the large increase in revenue at our filling stations,” said Silvano Calcagno, Managing Director of Liqvis.

“At Liqvis, we want transport companies to be able to plan the use of their vehicles as flexibly as possible,” added Calcagno.

“That's why we're continually working on expanding our network coverage and I am looking forward to being able to open further stations in Germany and Europe over the course of this year,” he stated.

The main advantages of truck companies switching to LNG are emissions well below the Euro VI standard and less noise from the engines.

“The ‘quiet’ LNG engine technology lowers noise levels for deliveries outside normal traffic times,” said Liqvis.

“In addition, by switching to LNG, operators can refuel their vehicles with a larger amount of natural gas, meaning that their fleets can travel longer distances,” it added.

Gazprom plans to order Russian-manufactured LNG-powered trucks to transport liquid helium from the Amur Gas Processing Plant, the largest such plant in Russia and second-biggest in the world.

Prior to being fed into “Power of Siberia” natural gas pipeline to China gas undergoes treatment at Amur, producing valuable petrochemicals and gases. 

The construction site of the Amur GPP is located near the town of Svobodny in the Amur Region of the Russian Far East.

Alexey Miller, Chairman of Gazprom, and Sergey Chemezov, Director General of the state-owned Rostec Corp. signed an agreement for the first batch of LNG-powered trucks to be produced.

The vehicles will be made by the Kamaz Group, a subsidiary of Rostec.

“The first 18 LNG-powered trucks that will transport helium will have special thermally-insulated containers and are expected to be delivered in 2021,” said Gazprom.

The Amur Gas GPP has a design capacity of 42 billion cubic metres of gas per year and when fully completed will include the world's largest helium production facilities.

The completed plant will comprise six production lines, with the first two lines slated for commissioning in 2021. 

The remaining lines will be consecutively put into operation before the end of 2024. The Amur plant is expected to reach its design capacity by 2025.

In addition to sales of gas and helium, the plant will produce ethane, propane, butane and pentane-hexane fraction.

Gazprom and Chinese major, China National Petroleum Corp., have signed a 30-year Sales and Purchase Agreement for Russian gas to be supplied via the northern pipeline route, which was partially started up in December 2019 to send limited volumes.