A. Tsimplakis
Supplying merchant vessels with LNG for their fuel needs - bunkering - is a pending priority for DES.FA, Greece’s natural gas transmission system operator.
According to the natgas utility’s director of corporate development, Iosif Florentin, who spoke recently at a roundtable discussion organized by the Hellenic Institute of Maritime Technology (ELINT), the first facility for supplying LNG as a fuel aboard vessels will be based at the current LNG terminal on the islet of Revythoussa, which lies just off the port of Piraeus and the adjacent industrial districts.
He said the facility can currently supply vessels that are larger than 20,000m3.
“By the end of 2018 an international tender will be declared for the construction of a new jetty II, which will exclusively serve vessels between 1,000 and 20,000m3, along with the addition of a smaller appendage and bollards to allow the supply of LNG to even smaller craft from the current jetty,” he said.
DES.FA, one of a handful of Greek state-controlled utilities up for privatization in the coming period, aims to complete the infrastructure project by early 2020.
Another tender expected for 2018 involves the construction of an LNG loading terminal for tanker trucks, with the inauguration date given as the last quarter of 2019.
Essentially, the first vessels to be supplied in Greek waters with LNG for their fuels needs will be first served by tanker trucks.
“N” was the communications sponsor for ELINT’s 11th annual Maritime Technology Conference, which took place earlier this month at the Eugenides Foundation’s auditorium in Athens.
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