Thu 5 Oct 2017 08:44

Coralius performs its first Gothenburg LNG bunker delivery


First Europe-built LNG bunker vessel supplies Ternsund tanker at Swedish port.



The Skangas-chartered bunker vessel Coralius has this week performed its first LNG bunker delivery at the port of Gothenburg.

The receiving vessel during the maiden operation was the Ternsund - an oil and chemical tanker built in 2016 that is owned by Swedish firm Terntank.

In a statement, Skangas said: "Ship-to-ship bunkering is often the preferred solution for transferring fuel. It offers a flexibility in transfer location, wherever the vessel is located, and a swift operation."

"We work closely with both ports and authorities to serve an increasing number of European vessels with LNG," remarked Gunnar Helmen, Sales Manager Marine at Skangas.

"Soon, the fleet of LNG-driven vessels only with Swedish shipowners will double. Up to now we have bunkered LNG by trucks in the Port of Gothenburg. Our bunkering vessel is yet another manner to meet the demand," Helmen added.

The bunker vessel Coralius was delivered to owners Anthony Veder and Sirius Shipping last month and carried out its first LNG bunker delivery on September 19, supplying the Fure West in northern Kattegat.

The Coralius is the first LNG bunker vessel to be built in Europe; it has a cargo capacity of 5,800 cubic metres (cbm), is 99.6 metres long and equipped with state-of the-art LNG transfer equipment for bunkering.

The LNG fuel storage tanks of the Ternsund, meanwhile, have a total capacity of 630 cbm, whilst it is also able to carry up to 610 cbm of marine gas oil (MGO) in a separate tank.

The vessel, which runs on a Wartsila 5RT-flex 50 DF dual-fuel, 5,850-kilowatt (kW) main engine, is currently under time charter with Finnish company North European Oil Trade (NEOT), transporting petroleum products from the company's St1 refinery in Gothenburg.

Earlier this year, Bunker Index reported that Terntank had been voted the winner of the Port of Gothenburg's 'Gulddroppen' (Gold Drop) Innovation Award. The Ternsund was the first ship to ever bunker LNG in Gothenburg and is one of the few vessels receiving the Swedish port's biggest environmental discount on port charges for running on LNG.

Image: The first ship-to-ship LNG bunker delivery of the Skangas-chartered Coralius in Gothenburg - to the Ternsund in October 2017.