EU to promote LNG as maritime fuel in North Sea

The European Union's TEN-T Programme will co-fund with over €5 million the deployment of LNG as a greener and cheaper alternative to heavy fuel oil for maritime transport in the North Sea.

The project, which is to be completed by the end of 2015, will also help to meet European requirements on cutting air pollution in the North and Baltic Seas.

European Regulations require the shipping sector to reduce marine sulfur emissions in the North Sea to 0.1% as of 1 January 2015. One of the ways for the sector to reach this goal is to use cleaner fuels, such as LNG.

This project is part of a larger project aiming to promote the use of LNG in North Sea maritime traffic. It will cover the following three main objectives:

• Installation of small scale equipment for LNG bunkering in the Zeebrugge terminal (Belgium) to break down large quantities of LNG into smaller ones for further distribution in the North Sea and the Channel region.
• Equipment of three ferry berths with automatic quick release mooring hooks, two at the ports of Portsmouth (UK) and one in Caen/Ouistreham (France).
• Establishment of an optimal logistic chain to LNG in order to deliver LNG to ports and ships remote from the main European gas import terminals and therefore encourage the rapid growth in the number of vessels using LNG.

Adapted from press release by Katie Woodward

Read the article online at: https://www.lngindustry.com/small-scale-lng/15012015/eu-to-fund-lng-deployment-in-north-sea-51/