Elenger, a subsidiary of the Tallinn-headquartered natural gas company Eesti Gaas, has started to supply Tallink's cruise ferry Megastar with liquefied natural gas (LNG) also in the Finnish capital.
The ship is bunkered once a week, every Tuesday, within one hour in the evening. The fuel is primarily sourced from the recently commissioned LNG plant of Novatek in Vysotsk.
"While LNG bunkering is rather a rare sight in the port of Helsinki these days, it is bound to become one of routine operations in the nearest future: LNG will eventually replace diesel fuel among marine fuels, which will contribute to cleaner air and cleaner Baltic Sea," Jarko Alanko, CEO, Elenger Finland, said.
Capt. Tarvi-Carlos Tuulik, Head of Ship Management, Tallink Group, added, "As far as sustainability is concerned, Tallink Group is one of its pioneers not on the Baltic Sea alone but on the European scale. We have already decreased our footprint on board and onshore compared to what it was before, and we keep working every day to reduce it further in the future for a lower environmental impact."
Meanwhile, Damen is constructing an LNG bunkering vessel for Eesti Gaas. The 6.0k m3 of capacity ship is scheduled for completion in 2020, and will serve the northern and eastern parts of the Baltic Sea.
Photo: Elenger