Pioneer Knutsen bunkering vessel (Source: Gasnor Shell)
Lithuania’s energy terminals operator Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil) and the Spanish Association of Natural Gas for Mobility, GASNAM, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate in developing standards for the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) governing the activities of LNG supply to ships in its various forms: truck-to-ship, port-to-ship and ship-to-ship, in which Spain has accumulated significant experience.
Klaipedos Nafta, operator of the Klaipeda LNG terminal, plans to start operations of LNG cargo in 2017 and to offer LNG bunkering and truck loading services to customers in the Baltic countries and North Sea, including Poland.
“Klaipedos Nafta has not only realized the first large-scale LNG terminal project of the Baltic countries, but also is the operator of constantly evolving terminal operations and the introduction of new LNG kind of business both in Lithuania and the Baltic region. It is natural that we become partners in the organization, which brings together the natural gas market participants, because we can share our experience with international market players together and standardize certain processes,” said Mantas Bartuška, AB Klaipedos Nafta CEO in a press release.
Both entities are also collaborating in the UNECE Working Group of Experts on Gas, D Task Force, coordinated by GASNAM.
GASNAM was created in Spain in 2013, but has since expanded into Portugal, representing the Iberian common interests related to natural gas.
In February 2015 Klaipedos Nafta and Hamburg-based Bomin Linde LNG, provider of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as marine fuel, signed a MoU to jointly develop the LNG fuel market in the Baltic Sea in particular the development of a LNG bunker supply vessel. Besides LNG bunkering the vessel will also transport LNG to other LNG terminals and to the LNG reloading station in Klaipeda, which is being developed by Klaipedos Nafta.
(Sources: GASNAM and Klaipedos Nafta)
