Securing Europe’s liquid gas supply: inside DCC’s centralised procurement hub

As Managing Director of DCC Liquid Gas Procurement, Paul Westerman oversees the central trading and supply hub responsible for sourcing and shipping all of DCC’s  waterborne liquid gas across Europe. Here, Paul shares how DCC’s liquid gas portfolio is evolving, and what the future holds for liquid gas and renewable alternatives.

As Europe’s energy landscape continues to evolve, DCC is taking a proactive approach to ensuring supply security, sustainability and competitiveness across its liquid gas portfolio. At the centre of this transformation is DCC’s liquid gas procurement hub, designed to coordinate and optimise supply across the Group’s European operations.

Formed in 2023, the procurement hub brings together expertise, market insight, and scale to strengthen DCC’s position in an increasingly dynamic global energy market. “With the backing of our European liquid gas business leaders, we established the procurement hub to arrange waterborne supply for all of the DCC’s ship-fed terminals,” Paul explains.

From local to central: building scale and market insight

When Paul joined DCC in early 2020, supply management was largely decentralised. Individual businesses handled their own contracts and logistics on a country-by-country basis. The move to a centralised model marks a significant strategic shift; it enables cross-business demand aggregation (scale), deepens market expertise (skill), and allows DCC to manage logistics in-house (higher flexibility / lower cost).

“The obvious benefit is scale. Combining our businesses’ demand increases our bargaining power,” Paul points out. “But just as important is focus and in-house expertise. Having a dedicated team that’s ‘in the market’ every day deepens our understanding of both our own assets and those of our suppliers.”

Global sourcing & supply strategy

Each year, DCC procures well over a million tonnes of liquid gas across Europe, around half of which is imported by ship (the other half is trucked or railed from local refineries). Paul describes DCC’s supply approach as a balancing act informed by global arbitrage (where product is cheapest), shipping economics, and timing. Where possible the procurement hub maintains direct relationships with producers, reducing reliance on intermediaries, and collaborates with shipping partners to secure logistic flexibility.

“We continuously assess where supply is most cost-effective globally and how best to match that with our logistics capacity and our businesses’ demand,” he says. “We aim to be a true one-stop-shop for all our businesses, offering supply security and flexibility. If there is an urgent requirement at one business, we can prioritise the next delivery to them and reschedule a less urgent delivery to another business. And all this is at no extra cost to the businesses or the group.”

Liquid gas

While methane is typically brought to the end-user in gas form by pipes, gases such as propane and butane have a higher density and can be transported in liquid form either by cooling or pressurising. This allows for easier and more cost-effective transport, making them a versatile energy carrier for customers off the natural gas grid and thus indispensable in large parts of the European market.

Propane is more volatile than Butane and therefore used more widely in colder climates. Butane, on the other hand, is denser, which allows greater tonnage per vessel.

Renewable liquid gases

The difference between renewable and conventional liquid gases isn't in the use case but in the origin, i.e. they're produced from sustainable feedstocks like vegetable oils and fats instead of crude oil. As demand for - and production of - renewable diesel (HVO) and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) grows, so too should the production of the by-product: bio liquid gas. Still, Paul acknowledges that policy support and incentive frameworks will be vital in scaling production to match ambition: “Depending on the pace of mandating or stimulating the use of renewable liquid gases as fuel, they may be used to meet Refineries' own sustainable energy demand, thus never coming to market”.

There are alternative renewable liquid gases such as renewable dimethyl ether (rDME) and ammonia that can be manufactured on purpose but today they are more expensive than their conventional counterparts. These alternative renewable liquid gases can be shipped, stored and used in similar ways as conventional liquid gases.”

Partnerships and end-to-end logistics

Rather than relying exclusively on tenders, DCC’s procurement hub employs a consultation process with potential suppliers. This approach emphasises deep engagement and collaborative agreements, where we aim for suppliers to become our long-term partners.

“We try to help them help us, i.e. we seek to give flexibility that’s valuable to a supplier but is of limited cost to us,” Paul says. “The overriding principle in both our relationships with product suppliers as well as with logistics providers is to create a win-win outcome, where we all thrive and behave as true, long-term partners.”

Liquid gas moves through DCC’s logistics network via seaborne transportation:

• Cargoes (~10,000-20,000 tonnes): Bringing refrigerated liquid gas typically from North America or the North Sea to our major European terminals in Germany and France
• Coasters (~1,300-2,400 tonnes): Bringing pressurized liquid gas typically from terminals or refineries in Northwest Europe to our terminals in Ireland and Norway
• Barges (~1,000-1,200 tonnes): Navigating inland waterways from terminals/refineries in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region to our terminal in Germany

Looking ahead and preparing for transition

One of the big challenges Europe is facing is the high price of energy. For renewable liquid gases to become available and affordable to our customers requires changes in the regulatory frameworks and financial incentives because right now they’re approximately twice as expensive as conventional liquid gases.

“What excites me is our ability to adapt to the ever-changing geopolitical environment, the pressures of climate change, and the evolving energy mix,” Paul says. “The procurement hub is a scalable, transferable concept — one that will ensure timely, competitive, and sustainable supply for DCC Energy, its businesses and - ultimately important - its customers.

“There's never a dull moment in our industry, which is a good thing. It keeps us on our toes, and we'll keep changing and adapting to supply the fuels our customers need.”

In essence, DCC Liquid Gas Procurement is more than a procurement hub — it’s a strategic lever in DCC’s broader transition. By integrating supply innovation, market agility, and sustainability ambition, DCC is well placed to navigate Europe’s evolving energy landscape.