Poland’s state-owned gas company PGNiG and the port of Gdynia located on the country’s northern Baltic coast have signed a deal on liquefied natural gas bunkering that includes the construction of an LNG fueling barge.
The duo signed a letter of intent on June 19 under which they agreed to work together on the technological instructions for fuelling ships with the chilled fuel, a mobile filling point for LNG at the Gdynia port and the possibility for ship-to-ship fuelling, according to a statement by the Gdynia port.
The project will be implemented as part of the National Center for Research and Development program – INNOSHIP and is expected to be completed within about three years.
LNG as fuel is gaining in popularity due to the proposed sulfur cap in the sulfur emission control areas (SECA) which include the Baltic and the North Sea.
The statement notes that more and more business entities in the Baltic Sea are interested in bunkering ships with the chilled fuel.
According to the EU directive for alternative fuels – by 2025 at the latest, a base network of LNG bunkering points should be established in seaports.
In the case of Poland, these are to be: Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Świnoujście, the statement said.
LNG World News Staff