Enrique César López Veiga, participated in a working meeting with leaders of the Suardíaz Group

According to the port president, the blue growth of the economy requires the incorporation of blue energy to promote the competitiveness of the industry by reducing costs and reducing environmental impact. Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) has as its main feature its ability to be transformed from gas to liquid, which facilitates its storage and transport, as well as the elimination of certain impurities such as CO2. It also needs less infrastructure - without pipes - and therefore has a lower environmental risk. This is why the NNG is a fundamental alternative to maritime and road transport, and is being included by the EU as a development priority.

Incorporation in the Atlantic Corridor
The SamueLNG project aims to contribute to the incorporation of LNG in the Atlantic Corridor and, in particular, in the ports involved. To this end, the adaptation of a ship of dragados in France and the development of innovative solutions for the supply of LNG in the ports of Gijón (by tanker) and in the port of Vigo (by multi-product supply barge) will be carried out. The success of the implementation of this initiative will make it possible to move forward in a second phase, consisting of the construction of a ground supply unit in Gijón and a floating platform in Vigo, which will undoubtedly make the Port of Vigo a reference in LNG at the Atlantic level. The design of this floating device (barge) for LNG supply has a large innovative component and differs you from other similar projects. On the one hand, the idea is to give it a scalable character through the union of different platforms, which would make it possible to adapt to the foreseeable growth of demand in the future. In addition, technologies developed in previous projects of the port of Vigo, such as the GPEC, will be used in this barge, making it possible, in parallel, to provide electricity and heat to the ships in port, thereby ensuring the shutdown of the engines of the ships and the reduction of emissions. In addition, a study will be carried out on the supply potential of LNG to a Ro-Ro ship of the Suardiaz shipping, which currently operates the sea highway between Vigo and Nantes, simulating the LNG supply operation through the barge. In the same way, and in order to guarantee the logistics chain of the supply, the possible location of a LNG tank on ground or intermediate station, which allows the fuel load to the floating device and the loading and unloading from the sea to that installation, will be examined. The activities related to the technical study of the floating platform are currently under way. The barge design will be completed before July 2017.