EMEA News
EU Master Plan For LNG To "Benefit Tremendously" Inland Waterway Transport
Stakeholders associated with the European Union's LNG Masterplan earlier this month said that the program is likely to "benefit tremendously" from the use of the environmentally-friendly fuel in inland waterway transport, Marine Link reports.
"We are actually getting things done now," said Dimitrios Theologitis, head of the European DG MOVE Unit Ports and Inland Waterways, at the LNG Masterplan Final Event in Rotterdam.
The comments came as 300 LNG stakeholders gathered at the Port of Rotterdam to tour LNG-related features associated with the facility and discuss bunkering, safety, emergency response, and design of ships, it was said.
The occasion also included the announcement of new LNG projects including the ReaLNG project of Shell, Port of Lübeck, STC-Group and Port of Rotterdam.
It was noted that Rotterdam has made "a significant investment in LNG over the last few years to become LNG-ready and a true European LNG hub, thus an example to other European ports," as part of the LNG Masterplan for Rhine/Meuse-Danube.
This was said to include features such as the GATE terminal, the Falck Rick training facility for emergency response in LNG, and the STC-Group e-learning and training facility for the employees of shipping and trucking industry who work with LNG.
Other LNG-related developments viewed by participants at Rotterdam reportedly included the Danser Group's LNG retrofitted container vessel Eiger-Nordwand and the LNG-fuelled type C tanker EcoLiner belonging to Damen.
The LNG Masterplan project was said to have been facilitated at a cost of €34 million ($37.3 million), half of which was provided by the European Union from the TEN-T Program, between 2013 and 2015.
In October, Ship & Bunker reported that the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine believes LNG should play a vital role in inland waterway transport.
