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    Gazprom and Dutch Discuss LNG, Nord Stream

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Summary

Gazprom and Dutch state-owned gas grid operator Gasunie met June 17 to discuss areas of their collaboration.

by: Mark Smedley

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Natural Gas & LNG News, Corporate, Import/Export, TSO, Gas for Transport, Infrastructure, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Pipelines, Nord Stream Pipeline, Nord Stream 2, News By Country, Germany, Netherlands

Gazprom and Dutch Discuss LNG, Nord Stream

Gazprom and Dutch state-owned gas grid operator Gasunie met June 17 to discuss areas of their collaboration, including a Framework Agreement on cooperation in the small-scale LNG sector signed in July 2015, as well as the Nord Stream-1 pipeline in which both are shareholders.

Gazprom said it exported some 20bn m3 via Nord Stream from January 1 to June 16 this year, 25% more than in the same period of 2015. Dutch Gasunie elected not to participate in the Gazprom-led Nord Stream-2 project, which signed up Shell, Engie, OMV, Uniper and Wintershall as partners.

The existing Nord Stream pipeline has 55bn m3/yr capacity and connects Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea; it is 51%-controlled by Gazprom, Wintershall, E.ON, Gasunie and Engie are its partners.

On small-scale LNG, Gasunie and Gazprom discussed a pilot project for the construction of a small-scale loading terminal in the German Baltic port of Rostock to receive, store and ship LNG for use as a bunker and vehicle fuel.

The first LNG bunkering operation at Rostock was performed on February 27 by Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Germania, which said this was the first time a ship was fueled with LNG in the southern Baltic. LNG was transported to Rostock by road tanker. The ship bunkered was the MV Greenland, a Norwegian-owned cement carrier built last year by Dutch shipyard Ferus Smit.

Gasunie and Dutch oil terminals company Vopak jointly own the 12bn m3/yr Gate LNG import terminal at Rotterdam, which is now building a 'break-bulk facility' to expand its existing provision to the bunkering and road-trucking sectors. These sectors will be promoted next week from June 20-22 through an EU-funded conference in Rotterdam.

Gasunie CEO Han Fennema in St Petersburg (Photo credit: Gazprom)

Gasunie CEO Han Fennema in St Petersburg (Photo credit: Gazprom)

Gasunie has cooperation agreements on small-scale LNG with other companies, and likewise Gazprom has such an arrangement too with Belgian gas grid and LNG terminal operator Fluxys. LNG 'break-bulk facilities' are being developed too in Belgium: by Engie at Antwerp, and Fluxys at Zeebrugge.

 

Mark Smedley              

www.naturalgaseurope.com