EMEA News
Port of Gothenburg Marks Latest LNG Bunkering "Breakthrough"
The Port of Gothenburg says the first bunkering of a ship with liquefied natural gas (LNG) during loading was carried out Friday, marking a new "breakthrough" in LNG bunkering at the port.
The latest development - the concurrent bunkering of Tern Ocean - comes less than a month after the first quayside ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation at the port, when Skangas AS' (Skangas') new LNG bunker tanker Coralius supplied LNG to the tanker vessel Ternsund.
"Even 5-10 years ago the idea of ships running on liquefied natural gas would have almost been regarded as science fiction. Now we have had seven LNG bunkerings here in less than a month. It would be no exaggeration to describe this as a major breakthrough," said Dan-Erik Andersson, Gothenburg Port Authority Operations Manager at the Energy Port.
Andersson notes that the development comes as a result of effective collaboration between various companies and organisations, among other factors.
"This development has been driven from different directions. We have shipping companies and energy producers that have had the foresight to invest responsibly in the long term, as well as public agencies that have been compliant with regard to the regulatory framework," said Andersson.
"The Sulphur Directive introduced in 2015 has spurred us on, and at the Gothenburg Port Authority we have offered incentives in the form of fuel transition discounts and other financial inducements."
Earlier this month, Magnus Kårestedt, CEO of the Gothenburg Port Authority, said the port is expecting to see a "significant rise" in calls by vessels running on LNG in 2018.
