First Liquefied Natural Gas Transport

At 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, September 6, 2024, the first train carrying liquefied natural gas - LNG by rail from the South to the North departed at Trang Bom station (Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province). This is the result marking the cooperation between Vietnam Railways Corporation ( VNR ) and Vietnam Gas Corporation (PV GAS) - Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group and is also the first time the Railway has participated in transporting "difficult" goods, promoting the superiority of the Railway in transporting special goods, oversized, overweight goods, goods requiring high safety requirements... ensuring technical standards and conditions for transporting LNG gas.

Accordingly, this train carrying 16 ISO Tanks (about 300 tons of liquefied LNG) departed at 2:00 p.m. on September 6 at Trang Bom Station, expected to arrive at Dong Anh Station on the afternoon of September 9, 2024. The ISO Tanks were loaded with LNG at Thi Vai Central LNG Terminal ( Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province) and transported by road to Trang Bom Station. This is also the first train that PV GAS has piloted using multimodal transport (combining road and rail) to transport LNG from the South to the North. Previously, from March 2024, the transportation of LNG by ISO Tank was mainly carried out by the unit using tank trucks, mainly supplying the Southern market and the South Central provinces.

In response to the demand for transportation and distribution of liquefied natural gas (LNG) of the Vietnam Gas Corporation and the ability to meet the needs of the railway industry, the Vietnam Railways Corporation has assigned the Railway Transport and Trade Joint Stock Company (Ratraco) to coordinate with the Vietnam Gas Corporation to research and develop a plan for transporting LNG by rail on the basis of fully meeting safety standards in loading, unloading, transportation, fire and explosion prevention and environmental protection according to the provisions of the Law.

LNG ISO Tank is a type of tank designed according to ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards to store natural gas that has been cooled at -162°C to convert to liquid state (Liquefied Natural Gas - LNG), convenient for transportation.

Participating in this supply chain, Vietnam Railways Corporation will transport specialized LNG containers on the journey from Trang Bom Station to Dong Anh Station and vice versa. Specialized LNG containers LNG ISO Container (also known as ISO Tank) are manufactured by NRS Corporation of Japan according to international standards.

The two sides have established a coordination mechanism to ensure smooth information flow during rail transport; applied convenient and flexible delivery software for units participating in the supply chain to access information and gradually coordinate with PVGas to form an LNG supply chain for the Vietnamese market.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy General Director Phan Quoc Anh said: "With our efforts and the support, sharing and companionship of PV Gas, we believe that Ratraco will fulfill its role well in this supply chain. On the part of Vietnam Railways Corporation, we will always create the most favorable conditions for the organization of LNG transportation on national railways."

To achieve this event of enhancing logistics capacity, PV GAS has closely coordinated with Vietnam Railways Corporation (VNR) and related units to actively research and complete the plan to transport LNG to localities across the country by a combined railway and road system; ensuring technical standards and conditions for transporting LNG.

PV GAS's first North-South LNG transport train is a testament to PV GAS's strategic vision in the new energy era, and also demonstrates Vietnam Railways' ability to flexibly meet customers' needs in transporting goods.

It is expected that from now until the end of 2024, each month, VNR will transport about 60 to 120 ISO Tanks from the South to the North.

Source: https://vr.com.vn/tin-tuc--su-kien/lan-dau-tien-van-chuyen-khi-thien-nhien-hoa-long--lng-bang-duong-sat.html