Engie Starts Ship-to-Ship LNG Bunkering
Ship-to-ship LNG bunkering has begun in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
The 5,000 m³ bunkering vessel Engie Zeebrugge delivered June 14 its first LNG to M/V Auto Eco and M/V Auto Energy, two new gas-propelled pure car and truck carriers (PCTCs) owned by Norway-based shipowner UECC.
The LNG bunkering operations were conducted while the cargo operations for PCTCs were taking place in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.
Engie Zeebrugge is jointly owned by French utility Engie, Mitsubishi Corporation, NYK Line, and Belgian gas grid operator Fluxys which also owns and operates the Zeebrugge LNG import terminal. Engie Zeebrugge will service all types of shipping customers in northern Europe from Zeebrugge, under the brand Gas4Sea which was set up last September.
It was built at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction shipyard in Busan, South Korea, delivered to its new owners in February 2017, and is now executing a weekly service for UECC’s PCTCs. It is the world’s first LNG bunkering vessel to perform regular ship-to-ship bunkering services. Engie Zeebrugge uses Fluxys’ LNG terminal which recently commissioned its second jetty, adapted for very small LNG carriers.
The first ship-to-ship bunkering operations are a key milestone in the development of the nascent LNG bunkering market, Engie said, which needs the collaboration of many stakeholders to gain a foothold: industrial companies, manufacturers, regulatory bodies, port authorities, and shipping companies.
UECC's two PCTCs have been operational since last year but until now have been bunkered whilst at berth in ports such as Zeebrugge.
A number of rivals are now looking to provide LNG bunkering services and facilities, increasingly beyond the established markets of northern Europe and North America. Launching an LNG bunkering initiative in Qatar June 13 with Shell, Qatar Petroleum's CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaadi said that there was the potential for shipping to use up to 50mn mt/yr of LNG by 2030, given enough support.
William Powell