Borkum bags first pure LNG barge

Tenders for the barge were invited last autumn by the Weser port management company bremenports. Dutch shipyard DBI Borkum BV in Groningen won the bidding an its associate yard, Pattje Waterhuizen, will build the barge. It will cost about €4.9 million, with the EU contributing €1.65 million from the TEN-T transport development programme.

Port spokesman Ruediger Staats told The Motorship the barge would be 70.5m long rather than the 68.5m proposed in a study for bremenports. It will also draw 3.3m rather than 2.9m and have a hold area of 850 m3 rather than the 840m originally suggested. For delivery at the end of the year it will join a small fleet of barges used for silt transport between Bremerhaven and Bremen.

Asked for details of the ground-breaking LNG propulsion system, Staats said: “Unfortunately we can say nothing yet about manufacturer, type or model. Negotiations are still going on between the yard and suppliers.”.

What is known from the data sheet provided is that the gas-electric LNG system will boast two 400kW gas engines and one 150kW diesel, and that the barge will be propelled by two Schottel SRP 200 rudder propellers providing nine knots. Bremenports earlier mentioned a bow thruster which it said could be a pumpjet or similar unit.

Robert Howe, who heads bremenports, revealed that ten yards from Germany, Denmark and Holland had bid for the contract. He said the Dutch had a lot of experience in building workboats while Mr Staats told the Motorship the Dutch also had a lot of know-how in the LNG technology sector.

In a related development, HGM Energy has announced that it will build an LNG re-fuelling station for ships and trucks in Bremen, to be completed next year.