Following the March announcement that BOC would be withdrawing from the UK LNG market, Gasrec has completed the acquisition of five Bio-LNG refuelling stations and four cryogenic trailers. The company will now refurbish and upgrade the sites before reopening them later in 2021.
The four tri-axle tankers, each with a 20-tonne Bio-LNG capacity, will join the company’s three units currently in operation by distribution partner, Reynolds Logistics. The company has a further two tankers in production that will join the fleet in early 2022.
In the past two years, Gasrec has experienced what it describes as a “huge spike in demand” for LNG; the company now supplies seven times more biomethane to fleets than it did in 2019. Bio-LNG demand at Gasrec’s largest site, near the Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal, grew by 250% in the last 12 months due largely, said the company, to the fuel’s suitability for long-haul freight and the size of the market for 6×2 tractor units.
Gasrec chief commercial officer, James Westcott, said, “Bio-LNG is proven to be the most environmentally-friendly fuel currently on the market for long-haul operations and will continue to be so for some time to come. We are focused on ensuring the infrastructure and supply line is there for every operator in the country which wants to make the move to Bio-LNG, and this latest and significant investment will help us to press ahead with those plans at pace.”
The company also stated that it was working closely with end-user fleets and developers of new logistics parks to ensure that suitable infrastructure is in place to meet the growing UK LNG demand.
