Gazprom and Dutch Discuss LNG, Nord Stream
Gazprom and Dutch state-owned gas grid operator Gasunie met June 17 to discuss areas of their collaboration, including a Framework Agreement on cooperation in the small-scale LNG sector signed in July 2015, as well as the Nord Stream-1 pipeline in which both are shareholders.
Gazprom said it exported some 20bn m3 via Nord Stream from January 1 to June 16 this year, 25% more than in the same period of 2015. Dutch Gasunie elected not to participate in the Gazprom-led Nord Stream-2 project, which signed up Shell, Engie, OMV, Uniper and Wintershall as partners.
The existing Nord Stream pipeline has 55bn m3/yr capacity and connects Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea; it is 51%-controlled by Gazprom, Wintershall, E.ON, Gasunie and Engie are its partners.
On small-scale LNG, Gasunie and Gazprom discussed a pilot project for the construction of a small-scale loading terminal in the German Baltic port of Rostock to receive, store and ship LNG for use as a bunker and vehicle fuel.
The first LNG bunkering operation at Rostock was performed on February 27 by Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Germania, which said this was the first time a ship was fueled with LNG in the southern Baltic. LNG was transported to Rostock by road tanker. The ship bunkered was the MV Greenland, a Norwegian-owned cement carrier built last year by Dutch shipyard Ferus Smit.
Gasunie and Dutch oil terminals company Vopak jointly own the 12bn m3/yr Gate LNG import terminal at Rotterdam, which is now building a 'break-bulk facility' to expand its existing provision to the bunkering and road-trucking sectors. These sectors will be promoted next week from June 20-22 through an EU-funded conference in Rotterdam.
Gasunie CEO Han Fennema in St Petersburg (Photo credit: Gazprom)
Gasunie has cooperation agreements on small-scale LNG with other companies, and likewise Gazprom has such an arrangement too with Belgian gas grid and LNG terminal operator Fluxys. LNG 'break-bulk facilities' are being developed too in Belgium: by Engie at Antwerp, and Fluxys at Zeebrugge.
Mark Smedley