THE DEMAND OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS FOR MARINE FUEL WILL REACH 89 MILLION TONS IN 2025

02/01 2015

THE DEMAND OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS FOR MARINE FUEL WILL REACH 89 MILLION TONS IN 2025

Reganosa presents on the “26th World Gas Conference” its project of a LNG hub at the northwest Iberian Peninsula

Other regasification plants of the Atlantic seaboard, work on the same line, so that a position in the market of the LNG marine fuel supply is a complex goal.

The consumption of LNG as marine fuel in 2025 will reach at least 89 million tons. This important increase is due to new rules limiting the emission of gases of greenhouse effect also at sea by the different fleets. Reganosa studies operate in that market, and it has revealed today at the "26th World Gas Conference", in Paris.

The “World Gas Conference” is a meeting done every three years organized by the International Gas Union. The assembly gathers more than six hundred energy companies from a hundred different countries. The forum, which is studying the most important gas industry issues for the future, Reganosa is participating while Spanish gas transporter -category TSO and members of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).

The Development manager of the company, Rodrigo Díaz Ibarra, has introduced today the project of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) hub at the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. This is an initiative the company is developing in alliance with the Galician government, University of Santiago, the Authority Port of Ferrol and Navantía with the support of the European Commission.

Managing data in a report by the Boston Consulting Group, Díaz Ibarra explained that, in 2025, in the worst case the annual consumption of LNG marine fuel will be 89 million tons, when global LNG imports reached last year 239 million tons. It is expected an important demand growth. He also revealed that 21.3% of the ships building orders that consume LNG are containers, and in 2030 32% of the fleet of container carrying ships will consume liquefied natural gas.

The strength of this LNG type of fleet is very relevant to Ferrol; in the outer port will soon begin to operate a terminal for containers. "An average container ship will have a fuel tank of 6,000 cubic meters for its supply would be required 150 tankers. This supply chain would not be feasible, so the solution will be on a ship of supplies ".

The Development manager of Reganosa also explained that due to the strategic location of its gasification plant, can opt to supply fuel to part of the 40,000 ships that annually pass through the Finisterre corridor and a segment of the Galician fishing fleet that today are 5,786 units.

Just last Monday Reganosa announced through the Official Journal of the European Union, a competition to design a ship of LNG supplies. The supply ship could carry 8,000 cubic meters, be equipped with cryogenic tanks, it should be appropriate to navigate in the North Atlantic and highly manoeuvrable, in the other hand it has to ensure a high transfer rate of the fuel. The project will be delivered by the company this year.

Rodrigo Díaz Ibarra also announced that the gas infrastructures planning of the European Administration includes, in anticipation of this new orientation of the regasification port of Ferrol, adapt the terminal to this market, so that it can receive ships of small scale like the one Reganosa will design.

Reganosa's approach has been welcomed with interest in the "26th World Gas Conference". However, there are other gasification plants of the Atlantic Europe working in the same line, so getting a position in the market of the LNG marine fuel supply is presented as a complex target for the competition that will find the Galician company.