Biggest Bunkering Vessel in Baltic STS Transfer

The world’s largest LNG bunker supply vessel Kairos provided LNG in a ship-to-ship bunker operation to a product tanker moored near Stockholm April 15, the Hamburg-based charterer Nauticor said April 16.

The Fure Valo, managed by the Gothia Tanker Alliance, was moored at the anchorage area of Sandhamn, and it was the first offshore ship-to-ship operation the 117-metre long Kairos had done. It can carry 7,500 m³ of LNG. The Fure Valo is a newbuild designed to run on LNG.

The transfer was done under an LNG supply contract signed at the end of 2018 by Furetank Rederi, a member of the Gothia Tanker Alliance, and German Linde's subsidiary Nauticor, based in Hamburg. Nauticor’s head of sales Jan Schubert told NGW the contract had no fixed volume but that it was the sole LNG supplier to Furetank Rederi’s vessels operating in the Baltic Sea.

Schubert further said that Nauticor sells LNG either at a price linked either to marine gasoil or to the Dutch wholesale gas hub, the Title Transfer Facility, with extra costs for delivery, loading and so on, depending on the buyer’s preference. Nauticor has access to LNG at a number of facilities, including the Gate terminal in the Netherlands, Zeebrugge in Belgium, Vysotsk in Russia and its own storage facility. It can also carry out bunkering using trucks.

Euretank CEO Lars Hoglund pointed out the importance of a strong LNG supply infrastructure: “We rely on a comprehensive LNG supply network. We are glad to see that the recent start of operations with Nauticor’s Kairos massively contributes to that network and makes LNG available at more locations, e.g. in the Baltic Sea.”

Nauticor chartered Kairos via the joint venture Blue LNG from the owner Babcock Schulte Energy, where Nauticor has a 90% share and Lithuanian energy infrastructure provider KN (Klaipedos Nafta) has a 10% share.

Nauticor's strategy is to cover the complete LNG value chain – from sourcing and transport through storage and distribution to refuelling ships with LNG in strategically important ports.