Madrid-based Suardiaz Energy Shipping has taken delivery of Bunker Breeze, a 5,250-dwt multi-fuel bunker vessel, from the Zamakona shipyard in Bilbao, says a news article.
LNG bunker vessels deliverability
Bunker Breeze is Spain’s second LNG bunker vessel (LNGBV), following the completion of 3,180-dwt Oizmendi earlier this year. A converted multi-fuel bunker tanker owned by Itsas Gas, Oizmendi’s LNG deliverability is provided by two deck-mounted tanks, each of 300 m3 in capacity.
Up to 4,000 m3 of fuel oil and 1,000 m3 of marine diesel oil is carried in 10 underdeck tanks
while four cylindrical, deck-mounted, pressure vessel tanks, each of 300 m3, enable the vessel to also supply LNG bunker fuel.
EU backed core LNGas hive
The Bunker Breeze and Oizmendi projects have benefited from financial support available under the European Union-backed Core LNGas hive initiative. The scheme encourages distribution infrastructure development to allow the use of LNGas a transport fuel, especially for ships, on the Iberian Peninsula.
Core LNGas hive is led by Puertos del Estado, the national association of Spanish ports, and co-ordinated by Enagás. The initiative has 42 partners in Spain and Portugal, among them Cepsa and Suardiaz.
Where is Bunker Breeze set to sail?
Bunker Breeze is set to go into service in the southern Spanish port of Algeciras in November, on charter to Cepsa. Algeciras is located on the Bay of Gibraltar, close to the Strait of Gibraltar, a stretch of water transited by up to 100,000 ships each year.
The Bay of Gibraltar is Spain’s leading oil bunkering site and an important global location for vessel fuelling.
Principle ports for LNG bunker
Baleària, the Spanish shipping company that has made the greatest commitment to gas-powered vessels to date, has identified Algeciras, Barcelona and Las Palmas de Mallorca as its three principal ports for LNG bunkering initially. Such fuelling arrangements would spread to other ports served by the company at a later date.
Baleària has three LNG-fuelled ropax ferries under construction and has, within the last week, ordered a high-speed catamaran to be powered by a quartet of dual-fuel engines. In addition, the ferry operator has embarked on a programme to convert six of its conventionally powered ferries to dual-fuel running.
Spain is well placed to take the lead in introducing LNG-fuelled shipping to the Mediterranean. Its six LNG import terminals all have the capability to reload LNG carriers, including LNG bunker vessels, and to dispatch LNG road tankers to regional customers not connected to the national grid.
The delivery of Bunker breeze
LNG for Bunker Breeze is likely to be sourced from Huelva, 180 km distant from Algeciras. Huelva is also the home port of Oizmendi.
The Bunker Breeze delivery comes among a flurry of worldwide LNG bunker vessel news over the past month. The four new orders placed in October have boosted to 23 the number of in-service and on-order vessels in the LNGBV fleet.
In tandem with recent completions of Clean Jacksonville in the US and Kairos, for service in the Baltic Sea, the delivery of Bunker Breeze boosts the in-service LNGBV fleet to nine vessels.
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Source: LNG World Shipping
