German LNG bunker supplier Nauticor and Russia’s Novatek Green Energy have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) regarding the cooperation in developing a joint LNG supply infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
Through this cooperation the two companies aim to further develop the marine LNG bunkering market by delivering via both bunker vessels and trucks. Special focus is placed on the development of such infrastructure in ports along the German Baltic Sea coast.
Both companies are already active market players in the North European LNG market. Novatek has LNG production capacities in Yamal and Vysotsk, while Nauticor has experience in setting up bespoke and competitive supply chains for LNG as marine fuel by truck and ship in Northwest Europe.
Gregoire Hartig, Senior Business Development Manager of Nauticor, commented, “The commitment of Novatek to support the development of small-scale LNG infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and beyond, underlines Nauticor’s efforts to develop the last mile of the LNG supply chain from the terminal to the end-customer.”
LNG, will compete with redidual, blended and distillate fuels in what is becoming a crowded market.
Competition from LNG has yet to substantially affect the global bunker market and the MABUX Global bunker index rose insignificantly today supported by slight upward trends in North America and Africa while lower prices in Asia offset the rise of indexes.
In the meantime, there are not any drastic changes to the fundamentals so far with forecasts saying global bunker demand could be 5%-8% lower overall this year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We don’t expect any firm trend for bunker prices for tomorrow: bunker prices may continue slightly irregular changes,” a MABUX spokesperson commented to Container News.
