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Eesti Gaas places order for 6,000 cubic meter LNG bunker vessel

BC, Tallinn, 02.10.2018.Print version
Eesti Gaas is placing an order for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel with a capacity of 6,000 cubic meters that will be the first of its kind in the northern and eastern part of the Baltic Sea. reported LETA/BNS.

The vessel to be completed in 2020 will serve ships in the northern and eastern part of the Baltic Sea, primarily in the Gulf of Finland.

"The use of natural gas as fuel in transport is expanding rapidly, and the Baltic Sea needs mobile infrastructure to serve demand. The LNG bunker vessel is an investment in high tech and environmental sustainability, for the sake of clean air and sea water of the Baltic Sea," the chairman of the supervisory board of Eesti Gaas, Ain Hanschmidt, said in a press release.

The majority owner of Eesti Gaas is the investment company Infortar belonging to Hanschmidt, Enn Pant and Kalev Jarvelill.

"This project brings together the two main companies of Infortar -- Tallink with its marine business and Eesti Gaas with energy. The know-how of both will be taken into consideration already in the construction of the vessel and they will be crucial also in its operation. This will raise the competitiveness of the Estonian marine business and the Estonian economy more broadly," Hanschmidt said.

Hanschmidt said Eesti Gaas will not disclose the price of the vessel because this is a new market for the company and it doesn't want to inform competitors about the price. He said that information about financing can be disclosed after the size of support from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) becomes clear. The company expects to get 20% of the necessary amount from CEF. Hanschmidt said that Eesti Gaas has completed all necessary application rounds and the exact size of EU support will become clear in the coming few months.

The CEO of Eesti Gaas, Ants Noot, said that Eesti Gaas possesses the most extensive experience in LNG supply and services in the region today.

"In recent years we have developed a separate field of business for LNG, carried out over a thousand LNG truck-to-ship bunkerings, and moving from land to the sea is the next logical step -- both an expression of exising experience and a new challenge," Noot said.

The new vessel will be able to bunker ships at sea and in port, and to deliver up to 6,000 cubic meters of LNG to a customer at a time at -163 degrees Celsius.

The LNG vessel will have a capacity of 6,000 square meters and a cargo capacity of 3,300 tons.

The vessel measuring 99.8 meters in length and 18.6 meters in width will be built by the Dutch company Damen. The vessel will meet all relevant safety requirements, have 1A ice class and serve customers round the year. The vessel's maximum speed is 13.4 knots.

The construction of the vessel is financed by Infortar and co-financed by the EU.

Eesti Gaas has concluded a long-term agreement on operating the vessel with Infortar and on technical support and manning with Tallink.

Infortar is the core shareholder of both companies.






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