Hamburg-based Nauticor, a Linde Group Company said that the world’s largest LNG bunker vessel Kairos supplied liquefied natural gas to DEME’s offshore installation vessel Orion in the Port of Rostock, Germany.
It was the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in the port, Nauticor said in its statement.
Orion is currently at the Liebherr construction yard in the Port of Rostock, where it is being outfitted with a 5,000-tonne crane. DEME’s offshore installation vessel is the fifth dual fuel addition to the fleet, following three trailing suction hopper dredgers (Minerva, Scheldt River and Bonny River) and a cable laying vessel (Living Stone).
Commenting on the operation, Jan Schubert , senior manager sales & business development at Nauticor said that after conducting the first ship-to-ship LNG transfer in Germany only a few weeks ago in Brunsbüttel for DEME’s Scheldt River the companies have now extended their cooperation.
“Additionally, this is the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in the Port of Rostock and highlights that the availability of LNG is now secured in another important port in Northwest Europe, thereby further reducing the hurdles for companies to decide in favour of alternative fuels and ultimately, making shipping more sustainable,” Schubert said.
For Jens Scharner , managing director of Rostock Port, the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in the Port of Rostock is an important milestone; “This operation strengthens the LNG cluster in Rostock significantly and is an essential extension of the services offered by the port. The continuous development from the LNG bunkering operations by truck during the last years towards the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation shows the strong operational performance of our team.”