Ashdod Port Company had the winning bid in a tender that was published by the Ministry of Energy to receive grants and a safety net to establish a natural gas fueling station. The company will receive up to 2.8 million shekels in grants.
After they were notified that they had the winning bid in the Ministry of Energy tender, Ashdod Port Company entered into advanced negotiations with the leading natural gas company in the region, Darom Natural Gas.
Furthermore, Ashdod Port Company began to move forward with administrative work to develop port projects to use the natural gas, in order to maximize the energy efficiency and savings in the Port's operational expenses.
In this context the Port began to develop two projects: Establishing a power station for internal use with a scope of 5 megawatt and establishing a gas fueling station for terminal tags.
These projects are expected to bring savings of 25-30% in the Port's energy consumption expenses – for example, in the day-to-day crane operations at the port.
Ashdod Port Company CEO Isaac Blumenthal noted that "as part of Ashdod Port's preparations for the era of competition in the seaports, we are taking steps towards energy and environmental efficiency; which will eventually lead to savings in the Port's operational expenses. We are happy that Ministry of Energy sees us as a leading partner among Israel's ports in promoting the transition of Israel's factories to using natural gas".
