Liquefied natural gas bunkering operations continue to rise in Spain following a record last year, as fueling infrastructure expanded and more LNG-powered vessels joined the global fleet.
Spanish ports hosted a total of 705 LNG ship bunkering operations in the January-July period, according to Spain’s Gasnam, an association that supports the promotion of LNG as fuel.
This represents a rise of 84 percent when compared to 384 operations in the same period last year, Gasnam’s data shows.
Also, the January-July total almost reached the 741 LNG ship bunkering operations registered for the entire 2020, which also increased nearly four times compared to the year before.
Gasnam says Spanish ports supplied about 94,504 cbm of LNG during January-July, up 25 percent when compared to 74,275 cbm in the same period last year. These volumes are mostly sourced from Enagas-operated terminals.
In addition, most of these supplies ended up in LNG-powered ferries owned by Spain’s Balearia, followed by cruise ships, and other types of vessels.
Ports conducted a big part of these operations by a truck-to-ship method using multiple vehicles.
The number of ports offering LNG bunkering services also increased from 9 to 14. The ports include Algeciras, Almería, Barcelona, Bilbao, Cadiz, Cartagena, Denia, Ferrol, Gijon, Huelva, Malaga, Motril, Tenerife and Valencia.
Gasnam noted that 11 of these ports carry out LNG bunkering operations periodically.