The port of Piraeus, Greece’s biggest, will be ready to offer LNG bunkering services from truck to ship in 2021 and ship to ship in 2022, authorities have informed.

Poseidon Med II, an EU funding program supporting related studies, infrastructure and the legal framework of the country’s main ports for development concerning LNG bunkering, including Piraeus port, has now entered its final year.

The Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), as well as officials at Greek gas grid operator DESFA, gas utility DEPA and Lloyds have all ascertained the LNG bunkering project at Piraeus port is progressing.

Preliminary studies as well as administrative and technical preparations, all necessary, have progressed to ensure the completion of Piraeus port’s LNG bunkering project, OLP director Dimitris Spyrou informed.

The project’s delivery schedule will also depend on the progress of DESFA’s construction of a new dock for small-scale LNG tankers at the operator’s LNG terminal on Revythoussa, an islet just off Piraeus. This project is budgeted at 40 million euros.

A national gas grid ten-year investment plan must first be endorsed by RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, before construction work for the new Revythoussa dock can commence, a top-ranked DESFA official informed.

At present, 350 large-scale LNG tankers and 200 cruise ships around the world are LNG fueled – the latter also use conventional fuel – while a further 200 are being built at shipyards.

The global fleet of LNG-fueled vessels will increase to 1,000 in the next five years, according to Lloyds representative Theodosis Stamatellos.