Engie Shrinks Benelux LNG Biz
French utility Engie has quietly shed most of its small-scale LNG marketing presence in the Benelux area, in response to its decision to divest most of its LNG assets to Total.
Belgium's Fluxys announced last week it had taken over a planned LNG bunkering facility at the port of Antwerp, after Engie failed to build that new facility as promised by end-2017.
More recently, leading Dutch small-scale supplier Titan LNG disclosed April 13 that it has taken over Engie's LNG bunkering projects and contracts in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Titan LNG and Rolande jointly acquired Dutch business Engie LNG Solutions with effect from March 1 2018, covering most of Engie's downstream LNG activities in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Rolande side of the acquisition was disclosed three months ago, and gave the latter four LNG truck-filling stations – in Alkmaar, Duiven, Heerenveen and Leeuwarden – bringing its total to 12.
Engie asked Titan to keep its side of the acquisition confidential until this month.
There is one exception: Titan's acquisition does not include the 5,000 m3 LNG bunkering vessel Engie Zeebrugge (built 2016) that Engie operates with three partners, chiefly out of the same-named Belgian port.
Titan CEO Niels den Nijs said last week: "This combination will help us to accelerate the safe, affordable, and flexible delivery of LNG to our industrial and shipping customers. Our LNG bunkering pontoons will put us in a good position to capture the growth in the market. The first bunkering pontoon, the FlexFueler001, will be operational in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region this year." (See banner photo at the design stage, courtesy of Titan LNG.)
Dutch LNG distributor Rolande is 100%-owned by local firm Iveco Schouten, a dealership in Italian Iveco’s trucks.