Baleària has completed the second delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the fast catamaran Mercedes Pinto at its usual berth at dock 4 in the Nelson Mandela pier area, in the Port of Las Palmas. The operation, validated under the supervision of the Fire Service and the Port Authority, rolls out every Monday for this vessel, which is 123 metres long and 28 metres wide.
The manoeuvre stands out for its use of the Multi Truck To Ship (MTTS) method, a complex setup that enables the simultaneous unloading of three tanker trucks through a manifold designed by CMC Cerezuela and the cryogenic transport company ESK.
In doing so, the Port of Las Palmas takes on the risk of falling behind in the global green bunkering map due to what is described as a regulatory paralysis that contrasts with the environmental requirements of the European Union. While EU guidance pushes for the eradication of traditional heavy fuels, Canary Islands regulations maintain a hopping supply model. The logistics drive by private operators such as Baleària, CMC Cerezuela and ESK to speed up loading times at the Nelson Mandela pier area offers only a temporary offset for the lack of permanent infrastructure, but it also points to the fact that the main port’s energy transition on the island is being decided on land under the restrictive criteria of local health authorities.
The technology used, which connects heavy vehicles through a cryogenic pump discharge system, made it possible to reach transfer speeds of 2,800 litres per minute (168 cubic metres per hour), with the technical forecast to raise the flow to 3,000 litres per minute. The procedure is nearly six times faster than the standard method for a single tanker truck (Truck To Ship), which limits the flow to around 30 cubic metres per hour. This engineering and ground-based synchronization effort seeks to compensate for the strict time limits imposed by fast passenger vessel schedules, which can carry 1,200 people and 400 vehicles at 35 knots.
An regulatory anachronism on the asphalt
The need to rely on this sophisticated sequence of articulated trucks at the Nelson Mandela pier area, however, highlights a structural contradiction in the first node for supplying the mid-Atlantic. The reliance on mobile tanker trucks to supply LNG to Baleària’s latest-generation fleet — a dual technology that cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 30% and eliminates sulphur oxides — is the direct result of the administrative block imposed by the Health Department of the Government of the Canary Islands on fixed storage facilities within the port area.
The systematic refusal by the Public Health department of the Canary Islands executive to authorize storage plants and fixed liquefied gas terminals at the Port of Las Palmas forces maritime operators to design alternative logistics on the asphalt. The region’s health criteria, shaped by a strict interpretation of the distances to nearby urban residential areas adjacent to La Isleta, prevent the Gran Canaria port from competing on equal terms with major distribution hubs in the Mediterranean and northern Europe, where fixed storage terminals guarantee direct supplies from the berth or via specialised bunkering barges.
The loss of competitiveness on the Atlantic route
The use of a three-truck tanker line has become a stopgap solution to address the restrictions imposed by the Canary Islands regulator. Shipping industry analysts warn that the lack of a permanent gas storage infrastructure limits the volume of operations and raises the logistics costs of decarbonization, requiring the fuel to be transported by road from Peninsula regasification plants. The manoeuvre, despite its technical success and avoiding the constant berthing changes that had penalised the operator’s service, shows the physical limits of supplying the modern merchant navy without fixed service stations.
The article ‘The GNL anachronism at Las Palmas port: Baleària’s hookup to serve Tenerife’ was first published on encanarymaritime.com.
