Rotterdam LNG throughput down in January-September

The port, home to Gasunie’s and Vopak’s Gate LNG import terminal, said that total LNG throughput reached 8.4 million mt in the January-September period.

This marks a drop of 3.3 percent compared to 8.7 million mt in the same period last year.

According to the Rotterdam port’s report, incoming LNG volumes decreased 5.2 percent during the nine-month period to 8 million mt, while outgoing volumes jumped 75.6 percent to 400,000 mt.

“Throughput of LNG as a source of natural gas dropped a little under last year’s throughput of 300,000 tonnes,” the port said.

“Natural gas reserves in Europe are high, requiring less supply. Also, LNG prices in Asia are slightly higher than in Europe, so spot cargoes are heading more frequently to Asia,” it said.

In 2023, LNG throughput rose 3.7 percent to 11.92 mt as Europe continued to import large amounts of LNG to replace pipeline imports of Russian natural gas and due to record LNG bunkering volumes, the port previously said.

This year, LNG bunkering volumes in the port of Rotterdam continued to rise as the global fleet of LNG-fueled vessels expands.

Europe’s largest bunkering port reported LNG bunkering volumes of 220,120 cubic meters in the third quarter of this year, the second-highest quarterly volumes.

Second-quarter volumes rose 7.7 percent compared to 204,418 cbm in the third quarter last year.

LNG bunkering volumes dropped 9.4 percent compared to 242,931 cbm in the second quarter, which marked a new record, while the volumes rose 2.3 percent compared to 215,247 in the first quarter.