Funding boost for Rotterdam LNG hub

The European Union’s €40m subsidy will cover LNG infrastructure for the Rhine-Main-Danube area, while the €34m will cover LNG breakbulk terminals in Gothenburg and Rotterdam.

A series of studies, to be completed in December 2015, will be carried out to create a European strategy plus pilot deployments both for LNG as fuel for inland vessels and as cargo transported on waterways and distributed via inland ports along the Rhine, Main and Danube rivers.

A new storing terminal will be built in Rotterdam, from which smaller facilities will be supplied with LNG. It will also feature a truck loading bay.

The new facility to be constructed in Gothenburg will be the first satellite terminal to be supplioed directly from the Rotterdam breakbulk facility.

With this, the Port of Rotterdam Authority will help create a logistics chain for LNG – the first in Europe.

A total of 33 partners are involved in the LNG ‘masterplan’ for the Rhine-Main-Danube corridor, which is coordinated by ‘ProDanube’.

Rotterdam port authority is coordinator for the Rhine corridor, while the ports of Antwerp, Strasbourg, Mannheim and Basel are also involved in the LNG project.

The subsidy for the breakbulk terminals relates to a joint venture between the ports of Gothenburg and Rotterdam, which will make it possible to supply LNG to the bunker market in north-west Europe.

Since 2011, the port has had a terminal for storing and handling LNG.

Earlier this year, the municipality of Rotterdam amended the regulations so that inland shipping can now bunker.

Support by these subsidies, the port authorities of Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Gothenburg and Antwerp, among others, are preparing for future joint international regulations.