LNG Stakeholders Platform in Helsingborg

An internal Coordination Group meeting was held on 26th March in the port of Helsingborg’s premises. Harmonisation Meeting dedicated to the Internal and External Communication approach took place on 27th of March. Communication Approach was the theme of the meeting, and examples were shared regarding the Project Communication on two levels: project and local level. Communication towards business and political stakeholders on project level and communication addressing communities on port level was discussed.

The main Stakeholder Platform event was organised by the Baltic Ports Organization with the assistance of the Cronström ∙ Olander AB. The LNG Seminar was held in the Dunkers Kulturhus in Helsingborg.

Main discussions were focused on: How do the LNG Stakeholders view the distribution of LNG within the Baltic Sea Region? How does the distribution of LNG influence the prices? Latest from the shipowners- is LNG the preferred solution?
Niels Vallø – CEO Helsingborgs Hamn AB opened the Seminar; an official welcome by Member of the Swedish Parliament Cecilie-Tenfjord-Toftby started the session. Rodrigo Pinto Scholtbach – IEA, Antje Willnow LNG Europe and Pia Berglund – CEO Sweship gave their relevant presentations.

The Seminar and its second part– Panel Debate, was moderated by Bogdan Oldakowski- Secretary General of the Baltic Ports Organization. Pia Berglund, Anders Östlund – CEO Öresundskraft AB, Ulrika Roupé – Project Manager, SSPA Sweden AB, Per Olof Jansson – Project Leader, LNG in Baltic Sea ports and Johan Algell – Business Development Manager, Scangass discussed the LNG distribution and prices within the Baltic Sea Region. Pia Berglund, expressed her opinion on behalf of the Swedish Shipowners regarding LNG as a preferred solution towards the upcoming SECA zones. Panel debate continued as an open discussion and was concluded with an interesting dialog on the main topics between the different LNG stakeholders and conference speakers. Mr. Per Olof Jansson- Project Leader of the “LNG in Baltic Sea Ports” project, and chairman of the Steering Committee presented the project and gave his statement.

“LNG Stakeholder Platform was held in Helsingborg on March 27th 2014 in Helsingborg.
Seminar was attended by approx. 55 stakeholders representing a good variety of interest within the LNG field. The event contained two parts. Firstly, number of very interesting presentations were given from well initiated persons. Secondly it was a panel debate regarding how far are we with the LNG infrastructure and when can we expect an increase in demand.

The conclusion of the seminar is that the ship owners must know the price for LNG before they will take a decision of building new vessels. Another important item is of course the safety aspects. We need to have ISO standards when it comes to STS bunkering in the different ports. However all participant agreed on the fact that LNG will be one of the fuel alternatives in the future.”