Finland’s Gasum counts itself as something of leader in the Nordic countries for LNG and liquefied biogas (LBG) supply, but the company is moving to expand its reach into the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region and northern Germany.
Last month, Espoo-based, state-owned Gasum received approval from the competition authorities for its planned buyout of German chemicals company Linde Group’s LNG fuel supply assets, Nauticor and AGA.
The buyout will be finalised at the end of this month, at which time Nauticor and its associate's name will disappear.
The deal will give Gasum, which has traditionally operated in the Danish straits, the time charter on what is currently Europe’s largest LNG bunker vessel (LNGBV), the 7,500-cbm Kairos (built 2018); together with its smallest, the 167-cbm Seagas (built 1974), a converted vessel that supplies LNG as bunkers to Viking Lines.
Cleaner energy
Gasum sales director Jacob Granqvist said the company’s vision and mission is to supply cleaner energy, with the company focused on providing LNG and liquefied biogas.
He said the Nauticor buy is one step towards the company growing its geographical reach.
Granqvist said Gasum hopes to be operating with a more permanent establishment in the ARA region later this year.
He said Gasum already has licences in place for its 5,737-cbm LNGBV Coralius (built 2017) to work there.
Gasum wants to have anchor customers in place in the region rather than putting an asset there on speculation, he explains, hinting that discussions with potential customers are in progress.
The company has other vessels — the 18,000-cbm Coral Energice (built 2018) and 15,600-cbm Coral Energy (built 2012) — on time charter, which it can also use to provide bunkering services and so offer larger deliveries to bigger vessels.
Last month, Nauticor announced it had teamed with Russian gas producer Novatek on LNG supply in the Baltic Sea, and specifically a planned terminal at Rostock in northern Germany.
