EMEA News
Gibraltar Officials: LNG Bunkering "Quite Some Way Away"
Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar (HMGoG) Monday said that it does not have any confirmed plans to start up Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering operations, despite interest in developing such a project, local media reports.
The clarification came after Minister Joe Bossano's comments Friday implied that a recent deal with Shell over LNG supply in Gibraltar had only happened because of an intent to supply LNG bunkers, and that any deal to supply the power station only was of little interest to the energy major.
However, HMGoG clarified that the LNG facilities currently planned by the government are intended only to supply LNG to a planned power plant facility, and are not intended to serve the bunker industry as they are too small to do so.
Nevertheless, the government still sees the benefit of LNG bunkering, which it hopes to develop in the future.
"A move to LNG bunkering would bring huge environmental benefits by drastically reducing the threat of oil pollution and the damage that causes," said Gibraltar's Minister for Energy, Dr. John Cortes.
"However, it is quite some way away and not part of the power station project."
HMGoG clarified that any proposed LNG bunkering project would require "a full and quite separate assessment" than that of the LNG power station.
"Our interest in LNG bunkering is nothing new and has been publicly discussed on a number of occasions," said Energy Minister Cortes.
Last month Ship & Bunker reported Shell Gas and Power signed a Heads of Agreement with HMGoG to supply LNG to the proposed power project.
