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Göteborg Energi AB has announced that it has decided to cancel the tender process to choose an LNG supplier to bunker vessels at the Port of Gothenburg.

In a statement the company said: "Göteborg Energi AB has decided to cancel the ongoing procurement of the bunkering of LNG, due to ambiguities in the tender documentation."

Göteborg Energi AB added that it intends to shortly commence a new procurement process.

"We would like to stress that the overall project is running as planned. The time schedule for implementation of the bunkering services is unchanged," the company said.

Göteborg Energi AB and Gasnor are joint partners in LNG GOT, a project backed by the Port of Gothenburg [pictured] which aims to set up a new bunkering infrastructure to provide LNG to the shipping industry.

The Swedish Maritime Technical Forum (SMTF) together with Göteborg Energi, Ship Structures AB, Cryo AB, supply, Det Norske Veritas AS (DNV) and White Smoke AB recently launched a report named ”LNG ship to ship bunkering procedure”, which is a procedural description of how LNG bunkering between two ships should be carried out.

Commenting on the project, LNG GOT said: "LNG bunkering ship to ship in port with demands for short operation time have not been performed before and this procedure has been worked out to handle the specific details of this operation in a safe way."

The procedure covers ship to ship bunkering of LNG in a port environment, with a dedicated bunker ship rapidly delivering the fuel to ships while cargo and passenger handling is still in progress.

The project was developed as an LNG bunkering concept that encompasses both the operational bunkering process and technical solutions needed for ship to ship bunkering of LNG.

The conclusion of the study was that LNG bunkering ship to ship is a suitable solution to provide environmentally friendly bunker fuel to larger ships. The concept is said to have been also accepted and approved in principle by DNV.

Göteborg Energi plans to have a liquefied natural gas plant in the port of Gothenburg, which will be able to supply gas to shipping companies by 2013. The project also aims to create the need for smaller vessels to deliver LNG to ships operated by gas.

“Our objective of the project is both to provide the technical solution and a process for the refuelling of liquid gas. Liquid gas is a safe and good alternative to other fuels currently on the market. It’s about adding one more piece of the puzzle in place to get commercial shipping to select LNG as an alternative to traditional heavy oil," said SMTF's Patric Westdahl.