LONDON: The Port of Rotterdam Tuesday announced that bunkering of the product tanker Ternsund is underway – the first vessel to be bunkered with liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the port, as well as the first to receive Rotterdam’s 10 percent discount on seaport dues for utilising LNG bunkers. As Ship & Bunker has previously reported, as part of its maiden voyage, the Terntank Rederi A/S (Terntank) vessel arrived at the port on August 8, where the vessel was set to first travel to the port’s Vopak Botlek with a cargo of naphtha before moving to the Willem Alexander Terminal to be bunkered.
“The Port of Rotterdam Authority is pleased that the first sea-going vessel is being bunkered with LNG in Rotterdam,” stated the port authority, adding that it is currently aiming “to turn the port into a major European LNG hub and promotes the transition from fuel oil to the much cleaner LNG as fuel for shipping.”
Before the bunkering could take place, Ternsund’s fuel tank is noted to have been “cooled down” to an operating temperature to -162 °C from +20 °C over a period of in 18 hours. The vessel is then said to have been slated to be bunkered via trucks with Shell LNG, a process set to be completed Wednesday morning before the carrier continues on to Gothenburg.
