GAC Group on Tuesday (8 September) said Fure Ven, a dual-fuel vessel owned and operated by Furetank of Donsö, Sweden, a company developing environmentally friendly product & chemical tankers, has become the first non-U.S. flagged vessel to bunker liquified natural gas (LNG) in a U.S. port.
Eagle LNG Partners, a pioneer in small-scale LNG and an LNG bunker supplier, was the first company to deliver LNG bunker fuel to a foreign flagged vessel, it said.
GAC added that this milestone paves the way for more international trading vessels to bunker at Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT), marking the latest tangible demonstration of LNG as a safe and reliable fuel solution.
The 18,000 DWT vessel transited the St. Johns River on Tuesday, 1 September, calling at JAXPORT’s Talleyrand Marine Terminal which serves Crowley Maritime Corporation.
Eagle LNG Partners safely transferred 225 metric tonnes of LNG to the vessel from their on-site storage facility, with the bunkering evolution taking less than seven hours to complete.
The tanker was laden with renewable diesel cargo for Preem, the largest petroleum and biofuels company headquartered in Sweden.
GAC said it assisted all parties by broking the LNG fuel and providing ship agency services to the vessel during her voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.
It was the first time that GAC’s Bunker Fuels division had secured a deal to supply LNG as a marine fuel.
“As early as 2014, Furetank decided to convert one of our vessels to LNG propulsion,” said Lars Höglund, CEO of Furetank.
“Backed by the encouraging effects thereof, we developed the V-series, a vessel design with drastically lowered emissions and fuel consumption. These vessels have already cut CO2 emissions beyond the IMO target of a 50% reduction by 2050.
“As a pioneer in LNG bunkering and a global leader in small-scale LNG, the team at Eagle LNG is proud to have partnered with the trailblazers at Furetank and GAC, along with numerous crucial stakeholders including JAXPORT, Crowley Maritime and the U.S. Coast Guard, to safely accomplish this first-ever LNG bunkering in the United States,” added Sean Lalani, President of Eagle LNG.
“As an integrated service provider for all types of vessels, including LNG carriers, GAC is uniquely positioned to deliver its first LNG bunker supply to the Fure Ven, and we are actively being engaged by many of our shipping principals to support their adoption of LNG as a marine fuel,” concluded Nicholas Browne, GAC Bunker Fuels’ Global Director.
Photo credit: GAC Group
Published: 9 September, 2020
Venture will leverage of GTT's membrane containment systems and Keppel’s shipyard expertise.
First published in 2014, SGMF’s ‘LNG as a marine fuel - Safety and Operational Guidelines - Bunkering’ book has been significantly updated and revised for 2022.
Gasum and Equinor have been co-operating on various projects and LNG supply chain development for Equinor’s vessels since 2011, it said.
In March 2019, the port established a working group to examine the benefit and scalability of LNG bunkers.
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GTT-designed LNG bunker tank will be retrofitted on Ultra Large Container Vessel MV Sajir for Hapag Lloyd.
Program introduces periodic assessments, mass flow metering data analysis, and regular training for relevant key personnel to better handle the MFMS to ensure a high level of continuous operational competency.
U.S. Claims Register Summary recorded a total USD 833 million claim from a total 180 creditors against O.W. Bunker USA, according to the creditor list seen by Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times.
Glencore purchased fuel through Straits Pinnacle which contracted supply from Unicious Energy. Contaminated HSFO was loaded at Khor Fakkan port and shipped to a FSU in Tanjong Pelepas, Malaysia to be further blended.
Individuals were employees of surveying companies engaged by Shell to inspect the volume of oil loaded onto the vessels which Shell supplied oil to; they allegedly accepted bribes totalling at least USD 213,000.
MPA preliminary investigations revealed that the affected marine fuel was supplied by Glencore Singapore Pte Ltd who later sold part of the same cargo to PetroChina International (Singapore) Pte Ltd.
‘MPA had immediately contacted the relevant bunker suppliers to take necessary steps to ensure that the relevant batch of fuel was no longer supplied. Further investigations are currently on-going,’ it informs.
