Axpo debuts in LNG bunkering in Valencia

Bunker supplier Axpo has completed its first LNG bunker delivery in the Spanish port of Valencia, with liquefied biomethane (LBM) making up more than half of the fuel supplied.

IMAGE: Bunker vessel Alisios LNG used in the supply operation. Axpo

The LNG-LBM blend was supplied to a container vessel in a ship-to-ship transfer operation, the company's statement said.

Axpo used the 12,500-cbm vessel Alisios for the bunkering operation. The LNG bunker vessel entered service in March in Spain’s Huelva, and is chartered by Axpo, from Enagás subsidiary Scale Green Energy, for bunkering operations around the Iberian Peninsula.

The LBM supplied in the operation was made from organic materials like biomass, waste and agricultural residues, the company said.

Axpo is not the first supplier to bunker LNG at Valencia. Shell’s bunker vessel Alice Cosulich delivered LNG to the container ship MSC Sabrina just outside the port in July.

The Port Authority of Valencia granted six-year LNG bunkering permits to Axpo Iberia and Shell in May. The permits cover the ports of Valencia, Sagunto and Gandia.

“As Spain’s largest port for container traffic and the fifth-busiest container port in Europe, Valencia is a strategically important location,” Axpo’s head of small-scale LNG Daniele Corti said.

Valencia is the fourth Spanish port where Axpo has carried out LNG bunker deliveries, after Málaga, Algeciras and Barcelona. It has also delivered LNG at Sines in Portugal and at the Italian ports of Genoa, Naples and Civitavecchia.

By Nachiket Tekawade

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