Nauticor wraps up first SIMPOS LNG bunkering in Helsinki

Hamburg-based Nauticor, a unit of Linde, together with Unifeeder completed a ship-to-ship bunkering of the LNG-retrofit Wes Amelie at the port of Helsinki, Finland. 

The world’s largest bunker supply vessel for liquefied natural gas (LNG) Kairos supplied the chilled fuel to the Wes Amelie at the Vuosaari Harbour container
terminal through a SIMOPS (simultaneous operations), Nauticor said in its statement on Monday.

The company added that this was also the first LNG ship-to-ship operation for the port of Helsinki as well as the first SIMOPS LNG ship-to-ship operation for a container vessel in the Baltic Sea in general.

The SIMOPS LNG ship-to-ship bunker operation was the first such operation conducted by Wes Amelie and Kairos. Nevertheless, both vessels already conducted their first LNG ship-to-ship operation at anchorage in Visby, Sweden, in April 2019.

Therefore, Lydia Glabisch, operations manager at Nauticor, confidently stated, “The successful operation proves again that bunkering LNG is already an established procedure in a variety of ports especially in Northwest Europe.”

The Port of Helsinki’s head of sustainable development, Andreas Slotte said the operation is the natural step in the process of LNG becoming widespread as a marine fuel in Helsinki.