Enagás quadruples LNG supply to ships in two years

This progress is due to the success of public-private partnership in projects such as CORE LNGas hive and LNGhive2, co-funded by the European Commission. These initiatives, led by Puertos del Estado and coordinated by Enagás, have developed an integrated, safe, and efficient logistics chain for the supply of LNG as fuel on the Iberian Peninsula.

The Enagás regasification terminal in Barcelona can carry out direct bunkering operations (pipe-to-ship [PTS]) and, since the Haugesund Knutsen, a vessel co-owned by Knutsen and Scale Gas, began operating in Barcelona in early 2023, it has also been supplying LNG as fuel via small vessels (ship-to-ship [STS]). Thanks to bunkering operations in the Port of Barcelona, 63 000 t of CO₂-e have already been avoided.

With the start of operations of the Levante LNG vessel, co-owned by Peninsula and Scale Gas, the volume loaded in the first four months of 2024 at the Enagás plant in Huelva has increased by 82% compared to the total supply in 2023. This terminal loads LNG onto STS supply barges and will soon carry out PTS operations. In addition, Scale Gas is building a third LNG and bio-LNG supply vessel, with the support of the Spanish Government through Next Generation funds, which will operate mainly in the Canary Islands from 2026.

The Enagás terminal in Cartagena, a pioneer in Europe in offering PTS services, will soon also be able to offer the possibility of carrying out STS operations.

In addition to these three regasification terminals, which are wholly owned by Enagás, the company’s majority-owned terminals in Spain also provide bunker-ing services: El Musel in Gijón, Saggas in Sagunto, and BBG in Bilbao offer truck-to-ship (TTS) services, and the latter also PTS.

The decarbonisation of maritime transport is moving forward with increasingly ambitious targets. The European Union adopted the European Regulation 2023/1805 in 2023, with annual carbon emission reduction targets, and the International Maritime Organization (IMO) last year revised its strategy to bring carbon neutrality forward to 2050.

Compared to traditional maritime fuels, LNG practically eliminates emissions of SO_X, while also reducing NO_X emissions by 80 – 90% and CO₂ emissions by 20 – 30%. CO₂ emissions can be reduced by about 2 million t by 2030, by using LNG as a maritime fuel in Spain. This would be equivalent to replacing more than 1 million combustion vehicles with electric vehicles.

Faced with a growing demand for bunkering, Enagás is offering new solutions to ensure a cleaner and more sustainable future in maritime transport, increasing its abatement capacity – emissions reduction – by promoting operations based on bio-LNG.