With a long range of participants from the local business environment, political side and EU side, the Nordic Maritime Hub project has been initiated in Port of Frederikshavn. The project consortium, consisting of Port of Frederikshavn, Kosan Crisplant and Stena Line, will meet the demands of the modern maritime sector by improving the port access facilities, establishing shore side power supply to be used by e.g. Stena Line's ferries, and by establishing bunkering facilities for alternative fuels.
The latter is an assignment e.g. handled by Kosan Crisplant, who are responsible for establishing a bunkering facility for liquid natural gas (LNG) on the port area. Bo Larsen, Commercial Director of Kosan Crisplant states: “At Kosan Crisplant we see this project as the door way to a big potential market for LNG in the Baltic Sea area. The bunkering facility is therefore also just the first step in our broader vision, in that we already have signed an agreement with another project consortium to establish a production facility for LNG and LBG (liquefied biogas) in Frederikshavn. Nordic Maritime Hub is thus essential for the development of the market for alternative fuels, not just in Denmark, but in the entire Baltic Sea area”.
Co-financing from the European Union
The Nordic Maritime Hub project was in June 2015 awarded TEN-T funding from EU's Connecting Europe Facility, which is a funding instrument established to realise the European transport infrastructure policy. The event therefore also had the participation of EU's Motorways of the Sea coordinator, Brian Simpson, who in his speech expressed his great enthusiasm about the project and its visions: “From what I have seen, you have attempted a very great thing here. You are going to have a wonderful port facility and it is going to be a hope for all the Nordic and Scandinavian routes and in that instance our whole Motorways of the Sea vision is the same as yours and I look forward to working with you very closely in the future”.
This acknowledgement and the co-funding received from the EU can therefore also be seen as an important recognition of the project and the future development plans for Port of Frederikshavn: “The Nordic Maritime Hub consortium is incredibly proud of the recognition our project has achieved through the allocation of EU co-financing. It clearly shows how our thoughts about the development of the port and the facilities we wish to provide our customers with are the right ones. We therefore hope to be able to use this recognition and the momentum we have now created to further accelerate the development in Frederikshavn”, states Managing Director of Port of Frederikshavn, Mikkel Seedorff Sørensen.
Besides creating new possibilities and expanding the traditional port business in Port of Frederikshavn to e.g. also including bunkering of alternative fuels, the project must also be seen as a first step towards the goal of strengthening the maritime corridor between Frederikshavn and Gothenburg. Port of Frederikshavn, Port of Gothenburg and Stena Line did therefore in 2015 enter into a historical strategic partnership, striving to achieve development, cooperation and future investments in the infrastructure on both sides of the Kattegat.
“Nordic Maritime Hub is to Stena Line an important building stone with regards to the future development of the maritime cooperation across the Kattegat. We are therefore very happy to be a part of this project consortium and we see much business potential as a consequence of this first step that we are taking today”, states Route Director Magnus Hallberg, Stena Line.
Nordic Maritime Hub will run until the fall 2018 and will be implemented alongside the ongoing port expansion in Port of Frederikshavn.
The official kick-off was marked by the EU's Motorways of the Sea Coordinator Brian Simpson, Mayor of Frederikshavn Municipality Birgit S. Hansen, and Managing Director of Port of Frederikshavn Mikkel Seedorff Sørensen opening for a vent that symbolically initiated the dredging of the port basin.
Source: Port Of Frederikshavn