Gasum has begun work on building a new gas filling station in the municipality of Keminmaa in northern Finland. Construction work will take around six months and the goal is to open the station to users by the end of this year.

When completed, the Keminmaa filling station will be the first gas filling station in Finnish Lapland, Gasum’s northernmost filling station and the northernmost liquefied biogas (LBG) filling station in Europe. Gasum recently opened its second northernmost station in Luleå, Sweden.

The Keminmaa station will provide both liquefied and compressed biogas, thereby serving heavy-duty transport and passenger car drivers. The station is located in the new Rajakangas industrial park on the E8 Oulu-Tornio road in the immediate vicinity of the Rovaniemi junction.

The station is ideally placed to serve traffic heading for Rovaniemi and Tornio as well has traffic to Sweden. The Keminmaa station has received funding from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility.

Aiming to expand further northward

When completed, the Keminmaa station will be Gasum’s northernmost gas filling station to date, but the plan is to further improve availability in Lapland.

“Gasum aims to expand its filling station network even further northward and enable transport with biogas and gas motoring in Lapland. The Keminmaa station will serve long-haul transport in the north and enable growing numbers of logistics providers to switch to biogas-powered transport,” says Juho Kurra, Head of Business, Traffic Finland at Gasum.

The lifecycle emissions of biogas are 90% lower on average compared to traditional fossil fuels. Biogas is a cost-effective fuel for heavy-duty transport and an effective way for logistics companies to cut emissions today. Logistics and transport companies play a key role in cutting Finland’s road traffic emissions.

Biogas already now accounts for almost all the gas sold by Gasum as a transport fuel for all vehicle segments in Finland. Gasum’s strategic goal is to bring 7 TWh of renewable gas yearly to market by 2027. This would mean annual savings of 1.8 million tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions for Gasum’s customers.