Lithuania’s Klaipeda performs first LNGBV bunkering

Lithuania's 2.9mn t/yr Klaipeda LNG import facility has performed its first LNG bunkering operation using an LNG bunker vessel (LNGBV) on 9 April, according to the port of Klaipeda.

UK-based Avenir LNG — the largest LNG and bio-LNG supplier in the Baltic Sea — used its 7,500m³ Avenir Aspiration LNG bunkering vessel to refuel the French shipping firm's CMA CGM container vessel Containerships Aurora with 326m³ of LNG via a ship-to-ship operation, it added. The Avenir Aspiration operates mostly in the Baltic Sea and Avenir is preparing for more LNG bunkering operations at the port of Klaipeda, with the next operations possibly in April and May, Avenir LNG's commercial director, Jan Schubert, told Argus.

LNG bunkering operations have taken place at Klaipeda in the past, but these have been truck-to-ship operations, with the first of these performed in 2020. The port is aiming to also produce and bunker vessels with green hydrogen starting in early 2026, it added.

This operation boosts the availability of LNG bunkering further in northwest Europe and the Baltics. Finland's Hamina LNG performed its first terminal-to-ship LNG bunkering operation in March, according to Finnish energy firm Rohe Solutions, with the bunkering in Finland mainly done by LNG bunkering vessels and not directly from import terminals.

By Ellie Holbrook