Bunker supplier Titan LNG and its Belgian utility Fluxys have taken delivery of a new fuelling barge that will be based in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium.
Titan said it is currently conducting the last trials of the 1,500-cbm LNG bunker barge FlexFueler002 and finalising crew training.
From February 2021, the barge will be located at Quay 526/528 in the port where Fluxys facilitates truck-to-ship bunkering and Titan LNG operates a permanent bunkering point for inland waterway vessels, the companies said.
The barge, which was built by shipbuilder Kooiman Marine, is a sistership to Titan’s first unit FlexFueler001 which started operations in June 2019.
“The FlexFueler 002 and the other LNG bunkering infrastructure in the port of Antwerp have the benefit of not requiring additional investments to offer fully carbon neutral choices moving forward,” the partners said.
“Titan LNG as the long-term operator of the bunkering barge is confident to make available liquefied biogas — from organic waste or liquefied synthetic methane — from green hydrogen and captured CO2 — to LNG-powered vessels soon after starting operations in February 2021.”
Fluxys and Titan LNG paired up to build the barge in early 2019.
On its delivery this week, Fluxys chief executive Pascal de Buck said the barge will be a key logistical link for the shipping industry to switch to cleaner operations in the Antwerp port and region.
“The prospect of introducing with our newly built bunkering barge fully carbon neutral options in the foreseeable future strengthens us in our commitment to press ahead with the energy transition,” he said.
Titan’s chief technical officer Ronald van Selm said the company, working jointly with the Port of Antwerp, has already delivered LNG numerous times.
“We are confident that together with Fluxys, LNG bunkering in Antwerp will be a daily business soon,” he said.
Separately Titan, which has been growing globally by conducting LNG bunkering operations in southeast Asia, the Mediterranean and Spain, is building another pair of FlexFueler units and an 8,000-cbm mothership Hyperion.
The company recently launched two new tools designed to make it simpler to understand and compare the delivered price of LNG.
