Liquefied natural gas bunkering operations in the Dutch Port of Rotterdam continue to increase, boosted by visits of new CMA CGM’s LNG-powered giants.
Europe’s largest bunkering port said LNG volumes reached 139,489 cubic meters in the first quarter of this year.
This marked a 243.7 percent increase when compared to the 35,426 cbm in the January-March period last year, the port said.
Volumes rose in parallel with new deliveries of CMA CGM’s ultra-large containerships which work on the Europe-Asia route and bunker the fuel in Rotterdam via the Total-chartered Gas Agility.
The French firm recently took delivery of the seventh out of nine 23,000 TEU LNG-powered vessels in China.
Gas Agility will fuel all of these vessels. Since starting operations in November 2020, the LNG bunkering vessel has delivered more than 160,000 cbm of LNG fuel in Rotterdam, the vessel’s home port, Total said on Monday.
Once delivered this year, the nine CMA CGM giants will receive some 300,000 cbm of LNG in Rotterdam every year, substantially boosting the port’s throughput volumes in this segment.
The port is a strong supporter of LNG as a bunker fuel and has developed one of the world’s biggest LNG fueling chains.
A total of ten LNG bunkering vessels operate in Rotterdam’s port area, of which three are working on a permanent basis, the port previously said. Dutch Gate terminal provides most of these LNG fuel volumes.
