Venice Port points to a LNG bunker barge

In Venice, the Northern Adriatic Sea Port Authority will use some European funds previously allocated for a prototype low-draft  container ship (LNG/diesel), to finance the construction of a new ship that it will be used for LNG bunkering.

The allocation of 11.7 million euros had been formerly approved  by the European Union, in 2015 as part of the Poseidon Med II project, which involved the company Rimorchiatori Riuniti Panfido together with the Venice Port, for the construction of a prototype "Mama Vessel" with a draft of 4.4 meters, compatible with the lagoon environment, based on an original naval design of the British company Bmt-Titron.

 "LNG is the fuel of the future, as indicated by the European DAFI directive and also by the SEN 2017 drawn up by the Italian Government. We have therefore decided to convert the 11.7 million that the EU had allocated for the 'mama vessel' project and use them to finance the design of an innovative LNG barge, in which the company Rimorchiatori Riuniti Panfido is also involved alongside the AdSP. Riotiti Panfido "said the president of the Authority Pino Musolino, commenting on the contents of the new Triennial Port Operating Plan, presented in recent days.

"It will be a highly innovative product, an excellence to be exported to the rest of Europe, designed in Venice and, we hope, also physically built  in one of our shipyard's sites, or in any case in our Region, to close the circle and further contributing to bring work and development on the territory ".

The new project will therefore concern a small size bunker ship for the supply of LNG in the Venice lagoon port, where it is known that the two companies Decal and San Marco Petroli have started the authorization process to build a 32,000 cubic meter LNG hub of capacity, for an estimated investment of over 100 million euro.