Finnish LNG-powered icebreaker completes first bunkering at Tornio Manga import terminal
The Finnish liquefied natural gas-powered icebreaker “Polaris”, the first of its kind in the world, has completed its first bunkering operation at the Tornio Manga import terminal in Finland.
There are two Finnish import terminals at Tornio and Pori. The “Polaris”, which runs on both low-sulfur marine diesel and LNG, requires around 700 cubic metres of LNG when re-fueling.
It can be bunkered either in port in a quayside truck-to-ship operation or at a terminal. The “Polaris” is in the government-owned ice-breaking fleet of Arctia and is one of eight vessels.
The “Polaris” area of operations is with two other ice-breakers assisting shipping traffic in the Bothnian Bay area of the northern Baltic Sea.
“The Nordic region’s largest LNG receiving terminal provided the cleanest fuel in a port surrounded by ice at least four months a year,” said Arctia of the latest fuel operation.
Finland’s Arctech Helsinki Shipyard built the “Polaris” and its first bunkering was carried out in June 2016 by the Skangas unit of Finnish natural gas company Gasum.
This was a truck-to-ship bunkering operation organized at Vuosaari harbour in Finland.
The LNG-powered “Polaris” is designed to continuously move through ice that is up to 1.6 metres thick.
The vessel can also break a 25-metre wide channel in 1.2 metre-thick ice at a speed of 6 knots, as well as to reach 9-11 knots of average assistance speed in the Baltic Sea.
Gasum is the leading Nordic supplier of LNG as well as having regasification and bunkering assets to cater for various markets from shipping to the industrial sectors in Finland, Sweden and Norway.
In addition to the two import terminals, Gasum owns a small-scale liquefaction plant in Risavika in Norway and two other regasification terminals at Ora in Norway and in Lysekil in Sweden.
Finnish gas and LNG operator Gasum sells technical unit ahead of 2020 opening of markets
Gasum, the natural gas network owner in Finland and an LNG distributor and regasification terminal operator through its subsidiary Skangas, has sold its technical unit to the Finnish Viafin Service Group.
Skangas to supply regasified LNG volumes by pipeline to Finnish energy production plant
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.
