March 16, 2011 [Port of Tallinn] - During the meeting on March 8, the Supervisory Board of AS Tallinna Sadam approved the annual statement of the Port of Tallinn and also gave approval to a range of development projects, according to which the operators will invest a total of 200 million euro into the development of the container terminal and of liquefied gas and liquid bulk transshipment terminals.
As Neinar Seli, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AS Tallinna Sadam, confirms, the development of new projects will facilitate increasing the competitive capacity of the port and ensure its energy safety. “These projects will have a positive effect on the Estonian economy as a whole, including the employment rate and the increase in tax revenues,” Seli said.
“As modern technologies will be used during the construction of the terminals and the cargo will mainly be transported by railway, the given projects will neither result in excessive environmental stress nor overburden the roadways of Estonia,” Seli added.
Year 2010 was also a year of success for the Port of Tallinn in terms of the scope of its operation. The volume of goods handled reached 36.6 million tons which is 5 tons more than the volume in the previous year (the growth accounted for impressive 16 per cent). This ensured that the Port of Tallinn took the third place in cargo turnover among the ports of the Eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. Primorsk occupies the top position, and Saint Petersburg fell into the second place. Thus the Port of Tallinn outperformed its rivals in Klaipeda, Riga and Gdansk.
An LPG terminal to be opened in Muuga Harbor
The main field of operation of the intended LPG terminal will be the transit of liquefied gas from Russia and Kazakhstan and supplying LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) to the markets of the Baltic region. The terminal will provide services for the markets of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. The intended capacity of the terminal will constitute 300,000 tons of LPG annually at the first stage and up to 800,000 tons of LPG annually at the second stage.
According to the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AS Tallinna Sadam, Neinar Seli, the terminal to be constructed will allow using liquefied gas under the same condition as natural gas. “This means that by installing new equipment in boiler rooms, one could substitute expensive wood heating or coal and shale fuel, which pollute the environment, for liquefied gas, which is cost-effective and clean. We are talking about a significant step towards the energy safety in Estonia,” Seli noted.
In the course of assessing the impact of the terminal on the environment, it became clear that neither the construction of the liquefied gas transshipment terminal nor its further operation to the planned extent and in the intended way will significantly increase the environmental stress or overburden the area surrounding the LPG terminal. The area chosen for the construction of the terminal in the Eastern part of Muuga Harbor is also suitable from the aspect of ensuring safety as there are no residential or public use buildings within the limits of the maximum danger zone of the facility.
The Port of Tallinn and Vopak E.O.S. are expanding the liquid bulk transshipment terminal
The Supervisory Board of AS Tallinna sadam has accepted the proposal of the company regarding the construction of an additional liquid bulk tank depot with the capacity of 400,000 cubic meters for the needs of AS Vopak E.O.S. in Muuga Harbor; this will allow handling up to the additional five million tons of oil products annually.
As the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of AS Tallinna Sadam, Neinar Seli, explained, Vopak E.O.S. has made large-scale investments in order to maintain and increase the current cargo turnover. “To begin with, in order to offer high quality services to traders and goods owners, the terminal has to possess an additional tank depot for storing and blending the products as well as additional mooring facilities for VLCC tanker loading and unloading,” Seli stated.
AS Vopak E.O.S. is the largest independent port operator in the Baltic countries and the largest cargo operator of the Port of Tallinn. AS Vopak E.O.S. belongs to the Royal Vopak group (80 terminals in 81 countries), which is the independent leader in the world as to the field of handling and storing liquid and gas chemicals and oil products. In Estonia, AS Vopak E.O.S. operates three modern terminals with the total tank depot volume amounting to 951,000 cubic meters. The terminals are situated in Muuga Harbor (Pakterminal), in Iru (Trendgate), and in Maardu (Termoil); the terminals are connected to the moorings of Muuga harbor by pipelines. In 2010, Vopak E.O.S. transshipped more than 19 million ton of cargo, which accounted for 52 per cent of the whole cargo traffic handled by the Port of Tallinn and 75 per cent of the total volume of the transshipped liquid bulk. The Port of Tallinn received 364 vessels in the last year in order to handle Vopak cargo.
The only place suitable for the construction of a liquid bulk terminal in Muuga Harbor and its surroundings is at the moment the so called “Lonessa” area in the Western part of the Harbor. The detailed project implying the construction of tanks for liquid bulk in the given area has been approved; the corresponding construction permit has also been issued. The area of the future terminal amounts to 20 hectares.
