The Gothenburg Port Authority has published general methanol operating regulations for ship-to-ship bunkering, while the Swedish port is also making arrangements to set up a value chain with the ambition to become the primary bunkering hub for renewable methanol in Northern Europe.
By 2030 the Port of Gothenburg has set out the target to reduce shipping emissions by 70% within the port area and it believes that one key step to reaching this goal is to provide a variety of shipping fuels with lower emissions.
“We are happy to share that we have received acceptance from the Swedish Transport Agency for the general methanol operating regulations for ship-to-ship bunkering. This work has been finaliSed after great support from Saeed Mohebbi from the Swedish Transport Agency,” said Christoffer Lillhage, senior business development manager energy at the Gothenburg Port Authority.
The Gothenburg Port Authority said that as this is a general approval for the port, each terminal will do a complementary risk assessment but this is more of a formality when the general guidelines now are in place.
For example, the Swedish port has already handled methanol in the port since 2015 when Stena Line started to bunker Stena Germanica truck to vessel.
“Now we hope to see Maersk, X-press Feeders and many other shipping lines routing their new methanol vessels to the North of Europe and we would be delighted to welcome them with open arms to the largest port in Scandinavia,” said Elvir Dzanic, CEO at the Gothenburg Port Authority.
Sven Siemsen, senior manager marketing Europe at X-Press Feeders, stated, “I am happy to see that Port of Gothenburg is working proactively to facilitate the bunkering of Methanol. It is encouraging as we need the ports to be ready when we are to decide where to route our first line of methanol propelled vessels.”
The Port of Gothenburg is also making arrangements to set up a value chain with the determination to provide eMethanol in the port by 2024.
“Together with industry front runners in the field of E-fuels such as Liquid Wind and their partner Ørsted, we are working to make this a reality. We are also planning for large scale storage of methanol with storage operators in the port when the demand is in place. We encourage methanol producers and stakeholders in the industry to reach out and start a dialog with the Port of Gothenburg as we have set the aim to become a bunker and storage hub for methanol/eMethanol,” said Christoffer Lillhage.
