Poland Trucking LNG to Estonia

Polskie LNG, operator of Poland's import terminal at Swinoujscie, said March 17 that LNG is now loaded on to tank trucks there and transported to Estonia. It added that the LNG is being used as bunker fuel for ferries built in 2015 at Poland's Remontowa shipyard at Gdansk. 

LNG loading on to trucks takes place at Swinoujscie on workdays and, depending on the number of orders, up to a dozen road trucks leave for various locations within 12 hours. The average loading time is around one hour. Up to some 15 trucks transport LNG on the 1,600-km journey from northern Poland to Estonia each week, said Polskie LNG.

Estonia’s Alexela Group at Paldiski and Vopak EOS at Muuga each have rival plans to develop an Estonia LNG import terminal, but neither has taken a final investment decision or begun construction. There is however an LNG import terminal in Lithuania that opened in 2014. Last year Latvia, Latvia and Estonia announced plans to create a single regional gas market.

Finland and Estonia took the final investment decision on the 150-km subsea Balticconnector pipeline that will be built by 2020.

Terminals in western Europe have transported LNG by road truck for years, particularly Zeebrugge in Belgium which loaded 1,184 trucks in 2015.

Mark Smedley