Elenger, a subsidiary of Estonian energy company Eesti Gaas operating in foreign markets, has started providing LNG bunkering services to LNG-powered vessels in the Port of Hanko, Finland.
This is in addition to the ports of Tallinn and Helsinki where Elenger already operates.
In the Port of Hanko, Elenger will provide the truck-to-ship bunkering service to two new ships in addition to Tallink’s Megastar.
The two ships bunkered by Elenger in Hanko are the largest short sea dual-fuel vehicle carriers in the world. Sister ships Auto Energy and Auto Eco transport new vehicles from Europe to Finland and Russia.
The ships of ice class 1A Super can accommodate a total of 4,000 vehicles on their ten decks. Both environmentally-friendly roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) ships belong to UECC, a short sea vehicle shipping company.
“In addition to new passenger ships, new cargo vessels are changing to the LNG technology in larger and larger numbers. LNG will eventually replace diesel fuel among marine fuels, which will contribute to cleaner air and cleaner Baltic Sea,” Kalev Reiljan, member of the board at Elenger, commented.
In the following months, truck-to-ship bunkering in Hanko will be performed once a week, every Friday. Four truckloads of LNG, which makes 72 tons, will be pumped to the ship. Like in Helsinki, Elenger is planning to deliver LNG to the Port of Hanko from the new Novatek’s LNG plant in Vysotsk.
Next year, Elenger will commence ship-to-ship bunkering operations after it takes delivery of its new LNG bunkering vessel. Currently under construction at Damen Yichang Shipyard in China, the ship is the first of a planned series of short-sea LNG bunker vessels to be built for Eesti Gas. The newbuild is intended for servicing LNG-fueled vessels in the North-East region of the Baltic Sea and will be delivered in September 2020.