LNG

Denmark and Sweden, whose electricity systems have been interconnected for more than 100 years, have signed a natural gas supply agreement to be implemented in case of emergencies with the Danes pledging to supply Swedish essential services with gas.

The Nordic nations have entered into a “solidarity agreement “ on gas supplies signed by the Director General of the Swedish Energy Agency, Robert Andrén, and the Director of the Energy Agency of Denmark, Kristoffer Böttzauw.

“The agreement will come into force if an emergency situation arises, where the energy crisis escalates and gas shortages occur in the coming winters,” said a statement.

“In that case, Denmark will contribute to securing the supply of the protected customers in Sweden. This applies, for example, to households, hospitals, emergency services and other critical functions,” according to the agreement.

Small-scale LNG

While Sweden is a small-scale LNG importer of around 400,000 tonnes per annum for bunkering fuel and other uses, Denmark has the key pipeline links to North Sea natural gas supplies.

Andrén, the Sweden’s Energy Agency head, explained that their energy systems were complex and connected to several countries.

“The agreement shows the strength of international cooperation, especially for security of supply, where the benefits of cooperation are obvious,” added Andrén.

The backbone of the regional gas infrastructure is the Danish transmission system, which transport natural gas from the North Sea to distribution networks on land.

Danish state-owned firm Energinet operates the transmission system in Denmark and the system is also the route to Germany and Sweden and to the two Danish gas storage facilities, which are consolidated in a separate company owned by Energinet.

“The agreement we have signed reflects the great work and cooperation that has taken place in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine - not just in the Nordic region, but throughout the European union,” said Kristoffer Böttzauw, director of the Danish Energy Agency.

Team work

“No country in the EU or the Nordics can solve the energy supply crisis alone. So we must cooperate and be in solidarity with our neighbours - both when it comes to supply chains and energy savings,” added Böttzauw.

The Danish and Swedish sides noted that Russia's invasion of Ukraine has strained gas supplies across Europe causing large fluctuations in energy prices.

“Although electricity and gas prices have fallen since the summer of 2022 and the European gas storages have a very high degree of filling, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure security of supply,” they said.

“The solidarity agreement shows the effect of the strong Nordic cooperation to ensure security of supply, where both countries benefit from close cooperation in both the electricity and gas fields,” they added. 

Gasum, the Finnish state-run natural gas company and leading Nordic LNG supplier, reported a loss amid higher revenues as it was hit by gas price derivatives issues.

Gasum, the Finnish state-run natural gas and LNG company, has extended its bunkering services in the Antwerp, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam (ARA) region by locating its bunkering vessel “Kairos” in the area.

“This supports Gasum’s strategy to expand its maritime services in Northwest Europe,” said the Helsinki-based company.

Previously Kairos has been operating flexibly in the North Sea and Baltic Sea and only arrived in the ARA area upon request.

The 4,376 deadweight ton vessel is 117 metre in length and 20 metres wide with capacity of 7,500 cubic metres.

“The new location of 'Kairos' enables Gasum to deliver bunkers of LNG, the cleanest available marine fuel to its clients in Northern Continental Europe, whenever they have the need,” said Gasum.

Gasum’s Jacob Granqvist, Vice President of Maritime, said he was happy to have the “Kairos” deployed in the ARA.

Market growth

“We are now constantly present in the region and can better cater for the needs of our old and new LNG customers in the maritime segment,” explained Granqvist.

“LNG is the cleanest available marine fuel, and it’s rapidly becoming the most commonly used alternative to traditional fuels,” he noted

Gasum also owns a network of Nordic terminals and facilities comprising a small-scale liquefaction plant and an expanding chain of LNG fuel stations for vehicles.

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

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

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

Gasum, the Finnish state-owned LNG distribution company and regasification and liquefaction infrastructure owner in the Nordic region, posted an annual net loss and lower revenues while expanding its operations.

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.

Gasum, the leading liquefied natural gas fuel company in the Nordic countries, has signed a contract with one of the region’s leading steel companies with a plant in Northern Norway, to supply LNG and to develop a customer terminal.

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.

Gasum, the natural gas network company in Finland and a leading Nordic liquefied natural gas supplier, reported nine-month earnings down by 7.2 percent as its clean energy policies proved to be slow in growing profits as it also prepared for the opening up of the market with the spinning off of a new company called Gasgrid Finland.

The liquefied natural gas fuel filling station network in the Nordic countries is growing with Finnish energy company Gasum opening its third station in Sweden and with plans to enter the road transport fuel market in Norway.

Gasum said the new Swedish station offers LNG and liquefied biogas for heavy-duty vehicles in the town of Orebro, where Gasum also has a biogas plant.

The Finnish natural gas company has set itself a 2019 goal of expanding its filling station network for heavy-duty vehicles to 20 stations, with 12 of the stations located in Sweden.

Gasum hopes to have a network for 50 liquefied gas filling stations for all vehicles by the early 2020s.

“Heavy road transport is increasing and today represents around 30 percent of carbon-dioxide emissions in the EU road transport sector,” Gasum claimed.

“Replacing traditional fuels with alternative low-emission fuel options is quickly becoming the norm throughout the road transport sector, as well as in other industries,” Gasum noted.

The company said customer demand for cleaner fuels for heavy-duty vehicles is increasing rapidly, which is why Gasum, together with its partners, was focusing on developing the gas infrastructure and filling station network in the region.

“For logistics (trucking) companies, LNG and LBG are a necessity in the transition to a carbon neutral future. At the same time, they enable significant savings in fuel costs,” said Mikael Antonsson, a transport director at Gasum Sweden.

According to recent European Union legislation, the average CO2 emissions of new trucks needs to be 15 percent lower by 2025 compared with 2019 and at least 30 percent lower by 2030.

Furthermore, Sweden has set a national target to reduce CO2 emissions from domestic traffic by at least 70 percent by 2030.

“With the use of LNG, CO2 emissions can be reduced by approximately 20 percent compared to traditional fuels and with LBG the reduction is as much as 85 percent,” said Gasum.

Gasum, the natural gas company of Finland, posted annual pre-tax profits little changed from the previous year even as the value of liquefied natural gas sales increased by 29 percent because of higher oil prices.