Shell Opens German LNG Filling Station

Shell said September 18 it has inaugurated its first public LNG filling station for trucks in Germany.

It is near motorway junctions to the south of Hamburg, making it an important tanker spot for goods traffic in, from and to the Port of Hamburg. With storage capacity of almost 30 metric tons of LNG, the station will enable more than 200 trucks will be refueled every day from October onwards.

Shell said Hamburg is its ninth such LNG filling station for trucks in northwest Europe, with seven open in the Netherlands, and one opened in May 2018 in Belgium; four more are planned in Germany in the next 18 months. Already around 5000 LNG-fuelled trucks are driving on Europe's roads, mostly manufactured by Italy's Iveco and Swedish brands Scania and Volvo, noted Shell. 

LNG is already fairly common as a fuel for trucks across Scandinavia, Spain and the UK, and becoming so in Germany where rival Uniper has at least one such filling station in Berlin.

Hamburg's senator for environment and energy Jens Kerstan said: "LNG can be a building block for less exhaust fumes and better air in Hamburg.... As a city, we are already at the forefront of e-mobility, and we want to do so with other environmentally friendly types of propulsion and fuel. In Hamburg, I also see a potential for LNG in ships, where LNG can drastically reduce particulate emissions and make a real contribution to climate protection....The Paris climate targets are mandatory and binding, so much must happen here very soon."

A top German court ruled in Feb.2018 that Stuttgart and Dusseldorf may legally ban older pollutive diesel cars from zones worst affected by pollution, overturning objections from regional governments. Many cities in Germany are consequently keen to incentivise the use of lower emission fuels for vehicles, such as gas and LNG. (Banner photo shows Shell LNG filling station in Rotterdam, Netherlands)