Nauticor: Kairos wraps up 100th LNG bunkering

Hamburg-based Nauticor, a Linde Group Company said that the world’s largest bunker supply vessel (BSV) for liquefied natural gas (LNG) Kairos conducted its 100th LNG bunker supply operation.

This milestone was achieved during a bunkering operation for the product tanker Gaia Desgagnes at anchorage in front of the Swedish island Gotland, Nauticor said in its statement.

The operation was completed ten months after Kairos conducted its first LNG bunkering operation for the LNG-fuelled ferry Visborg at Gotland.

The receiving vessel Gaia Desgagnes, built in 2018 as Fure Vinga and currently managed by the tanker pool of the Gothia Tanker Alliance, received 140 tons of LNG, while on her way from Immingham, United Kingdom, to St. Petersburg, Russia.

Like several LNG bunkering operations before, the operation was conducted under an LNG supply agreement, which was signed by Furetank Rederi, a member of the Gothia Tanker Alliance, and Nauticor in 2018.

Commenting on the milestone operation, Lars Höglund, managing director of Furetank, said, “Having conducted the first LNG bunkering operation with Kairos in April 2018, we are glad to see that since then the availability of LNG has improved significantly and that the availability of the environmentally-friendly fuel is no longer a hurdle in most of the areas we operate in, including the Baltic Sea.”

With this LNG supply infrastructure in place, a variety of companies, including Furetank and Nauticor, are already working on taking the next steps, including the use of liquefied bio gas (LBG) and synthetic LNG (SNG), which have even greater potential to reduce emissions, the statement reads.