Gibraltar saw the first ever LNG bunker supply within British Gibraltar Territorial Waters (BGTW). This took place with the arrival of one of the worlds biggest floating cranes, the Panamanian Semi Submersible Crane Vessel (SSCV) ‘Sleipnir’, owned by Heerema Marine Contractors.
Approximately 3200 Mt of LNG was transferred to the 8 bunker tanks of Sleipnir, which, to date, is the largest LNG bunker supply in Europe, according to Titan LNG.
The SSCV anchored on the western side of Gibraltar on 23 August, after departing Singapore on the 5 July 2019, as a new build, briefly calling at Cape Town, South Africa on 2 August before heading to the Mediterranean.
The vessel has an overall length of 220m, a breadth of 102m with a total gross tonnage of 187,987 tons, while it houses 155 crew members and 102 passengers.
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While anchored in Gibraltar, the Sleipnir performed various operations, including crew changes, spares, stores and LNG bunkering. The LNG bunker was supplied by the LNG carrier Coral Fraseri owned by Titan LNG, which arrived specifically to deliver the LNG to the SSCV. The SSCV Sleipnir left BGTW on August 30th, heading for Israel.
The LNG bunkering operation was only allowed after key personnel from both vessels met with a team from the Gibraltar Port Authority (GPA), including the Captain of the Port, his Deputy, Senior Officers, Bunkering Superintendent and the Pilots.
Niels den Nijs, CEO Titan LNG commented:
We thank the Port of Gibraltar for their support and are proud of our STS team and the crew on board the Coral Fraseri. The operation was performed in the sheltered bay helping to make this a safe, efficient and smooth operation
