KN: milestone LNG bunkering in Klaipeda port

Lithuanian LNG terminal operator Klaipedos Nafta said that the LNG-fueled cement carrier MV Greenland completed the first liquefied natural gas bunkering at the Malkos Bay terminal. 

Klaipėdos Nafta cooperated with the Norwegian company Cryo Shipping, Ignitis and Baltkonta, the company said in its statement.

Cryo Shipping performed the bunkering operation. LNG was purchased from Ignitis and loaded into the ISO container at Klaipedos Nafta’s LNG reloading station and transported to the Malkos Bay terminal by Baltkonta

KN said that 45 cubic meters of LNG were loaded to the fuel tank of Greenland cement tanker.

Nicholai Olsen, director of Cryo Shipping, said that Klaipeda was chosen for cement tanker bunkering because of the KN LNG reloading station infrastructure in this port.

He further added that CRYO Shipping will charter an LNG bunker vessel for their operations introducing ship-to-ship LNG bunkering for their clients.

Darius Šilenskis, CEO of KN, says that the process was complicated by the lack of current legislation regarding the regulation of LNG bunkering in Lithuania.

“The initial document regulating LNG bunkering in the port will be the Port Shipping Regulations, which are being revised by the entire community interested in the LNG bunkering,” Šilenskis said. “Until these are in place Cryo Shipping AS had to go a long way in obtaining permission for the first LNG bunkering operation in the port of Klaipėda and to negotiate a series of documents, defining a safe operation, and securing the permission of the Harbor Master’s Office in this particular case at Klaipėda Port.”