Developing a Strategy for Liquefied Natural Gas Powered Transport Corridors in the Baltic Sea Region

An extended number of international and/or national policies/regulations call for major improvements in contemporary energy consumption patterns (energy efficiency). A faster transition to sustainable energy production, as well as the introduction of various measures to improve the maritime industry’s environmental performance is also included in similar high level policy initiatives, with the establishment of Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECAs) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). One of the most prominent ways forward to achieve a more “environmental-friendly footprint” for those vessels engaged in maritime transport activities is to expand the use of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). Despite being of fossil origin, LNG is considered to be an important step toward cleaner shipping, given the better properties of the related exhaust gases when it is used as a marine fuel of internal combustion engines. The analysis at hand will discuss the development of a strategy for smoother and more efficient use of LNG as a fuel for transport needs in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), with the aim of enabling “blue transport corridors”. This will be accomplished by investigating the related transport flows and LNG infrastructure developments; the creation of a wider in scope value chain that incorporates all transport modalities and industries that use natural gas today is also envisioned as the next step of research. This activity is a deliverable of the “Go LNG project”. Another important task within the same project is to provide stakeholders and other interested parties with a knowledge base of the most influential policies/regulations and technological standards in relation to LNG applications, including the cataloguing and short description of well-functioning business models and solutions already available.