LNG

The European liquefied gas fuel filling station network is growing throughout Europe with two of the latest facilities for LNG as well as compressed natural gas being opened in Sweden and Spain.

HAM Group of Spain has just opened its Benavente-Zamora station for LNG and CNG located at Cañada Berciana 9A, next to the A-6 (Northwest highway), one of the six radial highways in Spain, and the N-630, one of the longest Spanish national highways.

“The new service station, designed and built by HAM subsidiary HAM Criogénica has two LNG dispensers (three hoses), to refuel trucks and heavy vehicles and two CNG dispensers (three hoses), to refuel cars, light vehicles, and trucks,” explained the Spanish company.

With this new opening, the Spanish group has a network with more than 115 service stations located on the main transport routes in Spain and the rest of Europe.

“We continue to bet on CNG, LNG and Biomethane as real sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, helping to reduce polluting emissions and respecting the environment,” stated HAM.

Gasum network

Finnish energy company Gasum also continues to expand its gas filling station network in the Nordic region.

It has just opened a new facility in the northern Swedish town of Luleå selling biogas, a form of LNG made from waste.

“The Luleå station is a result of cooperation between Sandahls Logistik and Gasum,” said the Helsinki-based, state-owned Gasum.
.
“Gasum can now offer both CNG and liquefied gas to transport companies operating locally in the northernmost part of Sweden. Since it has full control and ownership over the whole value chain, Gasum can extend the corridor of stations by another 250 kilometres,” explained Gasum.

Gasum now has 23 liquefied gas filling stations across Sweden and a total of more than 50 in the Nordic countries and some of these are operated by Gasum’s partners.

Sandahls Logistik is a family-owned logistics company the filling station in Luleå is Gasum’s second station built in conjunction with Sandahls Logistik. The first opened recently in Vårgårda, in western Sweden.

“As the filling station infrastructure expands into new regions, there will be a growing number of gas-powered vehicles on Swedish roads,” said Gasum.

“Several companies have already signalled that an expansion of the gas filling station network allows for completely new possibilities, such as switching over to lower emissions transports in northern Sweden,” it added.

“This new station is very special to us because it shows Gasum's capability to equip Sweden with gas filling stations from head to foot, from Luleå in the north to Malmö in the south,” stated Gasum

Gasum, the Finnish state-run natural gas company and leading Nordic LNG supplier, has named Mika Wiljanen as the new Chief Executive in succession to Johanna Lamminen, who stepped down after seven years in the post.

Gasum, the Finnish state-owned LNG distribution company and regasification and liquefaction infrastructure owner in the Nordic region, is expanding its geographic reach to France after already entering the Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam region, also known as the ARA area.

“As part of this strategy, Gasum has now obtained a licence to deliver maritime LNG in France, allowing it to add French ports and waters to its supply network,” said Gasum.

The new LNG distribution licence will allow Gasum to deliver to maritime customers in France and to offer LNG, a cleaner shipping fuel, to a larger number of customers.

In addition, the licence will improve the geographic availability of LNG to more European ports.

“Obtaining this licence marks another milestone in our quest to increase the outreach of our maritime LNG deliveries,” said Jacob Granqvist, Vice President at Gasum.

“It underlines Gasum’s commitment to act as a reliable European maritime LNG supplier,” added Granqvist.

At the end of 2020, Gasum extended its bunkering activities to include the ARA area.

The expansion is possible due to a new agreement with Norwegian oil and gas major Equinor for the ARA, an important trading hub in the rivers and canals and ports network where barges and small ships and tankers conduct trading and supply operations.

Gasum is now delivering LNG bunkering supplies to Equinor in the ARA. Gasum and Equinor have been co-operating on various projects and LNG supply chain development for Equinor’s vessels since 2011.

The Finnish company has been fuelling Equinor’s oil tankers that are shipping crude oil from North Sea to Swedish and Baltic ports.

The bunkering is mainly performed by Gasum’s small-scale bunkering vessels such as the “Coralius” and the “Kairos”.

Gasum owns a network of LNG import terminals, a small-scale 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.

Dutch shipbuilder Ferus Smit has launched the latest LNG-powered oil-chemical tanker for the shipping company Thun Tankers based in southern Sweden.

The vessel, named “Thun Equality” is the third ship in the E-Class series being built for Thun Tankers.

The shipyard based in Westerbroek in the Netherlands noted that the new tanker would be fuelled by LNG with a pressurized tank installed on the tank deck.

The 7,999 deadweight-ton ship has a total of 9,540 cubic metres of capacity and is suitable for International Maritime Organization class II chemical cargoes.

“As the delivery of the first Ferus Smit tanker to Erik Thun dates back nearing 20 years, this new ship will be the third unit in renewal of the fleet of 10 coastal tankers that were delivered to Erik Thun by Ferus Smit over the past years,” said Ferus Smit.

“We are proud that Ferus Smit had again trusted us to build the succeeding series as well,” added the Dutch shipyard.

“The new design is a completely revised and updated version of the existing design, that has proven herself over the years as a benchmark in the coastal tanker market,” added Ferus Smit.

“Focus for improvements has been to further optimize efficiency and the ecological footprint,” explained the shipyard.

The other main dimensions of the “Thun Equality” are length 115 metres, width 15.87m and draft 6.95m.

The Ice-class will be 1A FS, suitable for year-round service in the Baltic Sea.

Propulsion will be provided by the 2999 kW, 6L34DF main engines supplied by Finland’s Wartsila.

The Nordic LNG supplier, Gasum of Finland, posted a decline in annual revenues as its strategy moved the company forward in providing LNG for shipping and vehicles while withdrawing from the gas transmission business.

Gasum’s revenue was down 4.2 percent year on year, totaling 1.27 billion euros ($1.37Bln) versus 1.17Bln euros in 2018.

The company’s operating profit totaled 141.4M euros, up 13.9 percent year on year from 124.2M euros.

“We took purposeful steps to advance our strategy and developed the Nordic gas market, enabling an even broader offering of low-emission energy solutions in response to growing demand among industrial as well as road and maritime transport customers,” said Chief Executive Johanna Lamminen.

“The decline in revenue was caused primarily by the development in the sales price of gas,” stated the CEO.

She noted that at the turn of the year, the Finnish pipeline gas market was opened up to competition and the unbundling of Gasum’s transmission business was completed as a new company, Gasgrid Finland Oy, commenced its operations.

“Gasum has prepared for the opening up of the gas market and the broadening competition by developing products and services,” said added.

“Our company has decades of expertise in gas and in the provision of comprehensive energy solutions and energy market services,” said the CEO.

“Another important step in the development of the Nordic gas market was taken by us when we signed the deal on the acquisition AGA’s clean energy business and Nauticor’s marine bunkering business from Linde AG,” explained Lamminen.

“The transaction promotes our strategy by further expanding our supply of energy solutions for industrial as well as road and maritime transport needs,” she said.

“It also speeds up the implementation of Gasum’s growth strategy focusing on cleaner transport solutions in the Nordic countries,” added Lamminen.

Gasum continues to build its LNG bunkering business and carried out its 200 ship-to-ship operation in January 2020 as maritime use of the fuel gathers pace in northwest Europe.

The refueling  was carried out by the 5,800 cubic metres of capacity bunkering vessel “Coralius”, a supplier of LNG fuel in the North Sea and the Skagerrak areas since 2017.

The receiving vessel was the Fjord Line’s LNG-powered ferry “Stavangerfjord” as the ship underwent scheduled maintenance at the Fayard shipyard in Odense in Denmark.

Gasum also supplied its first cruise liner with LNG in November 2019 at the Finnish Meyer Turku shipyard in the port of Turku.

Fully owned by the state of Finland, Gasum has LNG import assets in Finland and Sweden and LNG liquefaction as well as marine bunkering services through its former Skangas business, now integrated and operating  under the Gasum banner.

The company’s strategy includes an expansion to provide 50 LNG fuel stations by the early 2020s for Nordic transportation companies in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

Gasum is the largest LNG infrastructure owner in the Nordic countries as well as leader in promoting LNG as a fuel for the maritime sector and for vehicles and industry.

It has its liquefaction plant in Risavika in addition to owning and operating regasification and import terminals in Ora in Norway, Lysekil in Sweden and Pori in Finland.

Gasum is also a shareholder in Finland’s second LNG import terminal in Tornio.

Feb 10 (LNGJ) - Gasum of Finland, the main Nordic LNG supplier and importer, said that in line with its growth strategy for LNG maritime and trucking fuel it was expanding its role in the Nordic power market by becoming a member of the Nordic power exchange of Nasdaq OMX. The membership provides Gasum with access to direct trading in the power derivatives market. “In recent years, Gasum has been investing purposefully in building the Nordic gas ecosystem. In addition to the gas market, Gasum also aims to respond to customers’ energy needs by operating in an active role in the power market too,” said the company.

Gasum, a leading Nordic natural gas company and liquefied natural gas supplier, said a growing number of trucking companies in countries like Finland and Sweden are renewing their vehicle fleets to be powered by LNG, taking advantage of Gasum’s expanding filling station network.

Lyse Group, the Norwegian company owned by 16 municipalities that first acquired waterfall rights one hundred years ago to help develop hydro-electric power stations, has sold its remaining 30 percent in Nordic LNG company Skangas to majority-owner Gasum of Finland.

Skangas, the Norwegian LNG distribution company owned by Finnish natural gas operator Gasum, has signed an agreement to supply regular volumes to biopower plant owner Porin Prosessivoima via the LNG import terminal in the port of Pori in Finland.

Nordic LNG supplier Skangas, a subsidiary of Finnish natural gas company Gasum, said it completed 1,000 LNG bunkering operations during a 12-month spell, representing a more than 60 percent increase over previous years.