Big Boys Get Into Small-Scale LNG

摘要

After years of talk, moves to create a small-scale LNG hub in Europe are finally taking off, spurred by the introduction next January of stricter sulfur regulations for marine bunker fuel in the North and Baltic Seas. Two such hubs have been announced over the past month — one spearheaded by Royal Dutch Shell and the other by France's GDF Suez — which both plan to enter service in 2016 bunkering ships using supplies from big adjacent import terminals. Shell will be the maiden customer for a new break-bulk facility at the 8.7 million ton per year Gate regasifi-cation terminal at the Dutch port of Rotterdam, while GDF is leading an international consortium that will develop a bunkering service 69 miles (111 kilometers) down the Zeeland coast at Belgium's 7.2 million ton/yr Zeebrugge terminal. GDF will be joined by a Japanese pairing of trading house Mitsubishi Corp. and shipper Nippon Yusen Kaisha.