Page 9 - NorthAmOil Week 13 2021

NorthAmOil COMMENTARY NorthAmOil

The Fujairah port in
the UAE is considering
options for LNG
development.

State gas supplier Gazprom, meanwhile, is has not transpired, as the country has built up its
building the 1.5mn tpy Portovaya LNG plant own supply chain during its years ‘in the cold’.
on the Baltic Sea that is set to provide bunker- While there had been hopes of around
ing services. The facility is on track to start up 200,000 tonnes per month of bunker demand
later this year. The company has plans for similar returning to Fujairah if Qatargas vessels
plants on the Black Sea and in the Far East, but it returned, Uniper Energy’s managing director
is yet to commit to their development. Lars Liebig said last week: “We haven’t seen that
Gazprom’s oil arm Gazprom Neft, mean- at all so far”. Speaking at the Fujairah Bunkering
while, will shortly launch Russia’s first-ever LNG & Fuel Oil Forum (FUJCON), he said: “There
bunkering barge. The company reported in late would have been the opportunity for those ships
December that the vessel had been set afloat. to return, and they haven’t so far”, adding that he
Final installation is underway and sea trials are was “rather pessimistic about it.”
planned to take in the current spring. It will join However, Martijn Heijboer, business devel-
Gazprom Neft’s fleet in the second half of the opment manager at the Port of Fujairah, told
year. S&P Global Platts: “If the suppliers in Fujairah
Gazprom Neft, already a major player in con- can offer very competitive bunkers of course, to
ventional marine bunkering, wants to develop a the Qatari fleet, I assume they will have an inter-
series of LNG bunkering barges that would pri- est in coming back to Fujairah.”
marily operate in north-west Europe. The com- The port is assessing options for LNG devel-
pany estimates that demand for LNG as a marine opment, with Heijboer saying: “Hopefully
fuel could reach up to 500,000 tpy in the region toward the end of the year, we will have a bit of
within the next decade. Besides the environmen- a clearer picture of where we want to go with
tal benefits, it sees LNG use as also commercially LNG … We are keen to look at investors who are
lucrative. willing to put something onshore, not necessar-
Russia is also looking to expand the role of ily full-scale right away, perhaps an LNG jetty,
gas in power generation, heating and vehicle small-scale storage to anchor the business.”
transport, to reduce emissions, bring down costs He added: “We are going to get some LNG
and monetise more of its vast reserves. Gazprom for sure, the interest is there … We just to need
reported in late March that it had found more gas to find the right setup with all the partners
than it produced for the sixteenth year in a row in involved, especially around the power plants it
2020. Russia is anxious to ensure that this wealth is Abu Dhabi controlled. We need to be aligned
does not go to waste. with them on the gas/LNG supply possibilities to
the power plants.”
Middle East Meanwhile, LNG will need to compete with
The resumption of ties between Qatar and Saudi LPG, biofuels, methanol, ammonia and hydro-
Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain at January’s Al-Ula gen as the shipping sector seeks to decarbonise
summit has brought significant potential for in order to comply with IMO GHG emissions
new favourable economic relations after three reduction targets. Speaking at the same event,
years of embargo against Doha. The move was FueLNG’s general manager, Saunak Rai, said
expected to bring an increase in demand for that a variety of fuel options would be required.
bunkering at the UAE port of Fujairah, but this “Somewhere LNG makes sense because of its

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