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Poland’s Szczecin port conducts first LNG bunkering

Photo: PGNiG Bunkrowanie LNG.jpg
The Polish port of Szczecin has conducted its first LNG bunkering in a move to promote LNG as a marine fuel in the Baltic Sea.

State-owned oil and gas firm PGNiG and bitumen producer LOTOS Asfalt cooperated to perform the truck-to-ship bunkering at the wharf of Szczecin port with the use of cryogenic LNG tankers.

The LNG fuel was pumped into the tanker of hopper dredger Scheldt River, which is working to deepen the Swinoujscie-Szczecin waterway to enable Szczecin port to accommodate vessels twice the size of the ships that currently call at the port.

“LNG bunkering services naturally complement the range of low sulphur marine fuels offered by LOTOS Asfalt to its customers. Shipowners are increasingly adding dual-fuel vessels to their fleets, and our goal as a supplier is to provide them with a complete range of bunkering services,” said Cezary Godziuk, president of LOTOS Asfalt.

Henryk Mucha, president of PGNiG Obrot Detaliczny, said: “We can see demand for bunkering services from shipowners at Polish ports grow, driven by a rising awareness that LNG, as an alternative marine fuel, is the sole mature solution that is capable of meeting the existing and future emission standards while being economically viable.”

PGNiG Obrot Detaliczny is a PGNiG group company providing LNG bunkering services at five ports in Poland - Szczecin, Swinoujscie, Police, Gdynia, and Gdansk.

“Energy transition motivates us to step up our efforts in the field of alternative fuels. One of our development directions is LNG, a green and safe fuel. In order to promote this market segment, we need to develop logistics and LNG bunkering infrastructure. Grupa LOTOS is analysing various projects in this area. The company has recently completed a feasibility study for a project to build a small-scale LNG transhipment terminal in Gdansk, which has already entered the internal corporate decision-making stage,” explained Pawel Jan Majewski, president of Grupa LOTOS, parent of LOTOS Asfalt.

Grupa LOTOS and PGNiG have worked together on LNG projects for several years now. PGNiG also supplies Grupa LOTOS with natural gas, which is used in petroleum refining processes.