Axpo Solutions completed, on July 4th at the Port of Sines (Portugal), the first Ship-to-Ship (STS) liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering operation ever carried out in a Portuguese port, according to Daniele Corti, Axpo’s head of small scale LNG.
During the operation, approximately 2,700 tons of LNG were supplied to the container ship MSC Togo from the Avenir Aspiration, a vessel chartered by Axpo from the shipping company Avenir LNG. Furthermore, the bunkering was conducted simultaneously with the container ship’s cargo loading and unloading operations (SimOps).
Axpo recently launched its STS LNG bunkering activities on the Iberian Peninsula with an operation at the Port of Málaga on March 14th and plans to expand the service to other Spanish ports such as Algeciras, Valencia, and Barcelona, using two newly built vessels: one with a capacity of 7,500 m³ and another of 12,500 m³. In addition, the company will also provide Gassing Up and Cool Down services (the process of filling and cooling cryogenic tanks to prepare them for LNG loading).
