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
KPI OC seeking to recover debt of USD 805,602.15 over five bunker deliveries, not including accrued interest of about USD 363,000 since 15 September, showed court documents obtained by Manifold Times.
Discussions around the need to develop methanol bunkering operations are taking place at numerous ports ahead of estimated demand of above 7M mtpa by 2030, says Chris Chatterton of Methanol Institute.
‘Economics of the shipping market will be the key driver enabling methanol to be adopted at a higher pace going forth over next couple years as market begins to return to more normal rates,’ states COO.
Integr8 Fuel injunction varied by Singapore Court to allow former employees to start work at Hartree Group in December 2022 following failure to produce evidence on biofuels development plans.
Variability of sources can affect the stability and performance of biofuel bunkers produced from these feedstocks, in turn leading to difficulties in meeting regulations and industry standards, shares Bryan Quek.
Top three positive movers in 2022 were Bunker House Petroleum Pte Ltd (+7), Eastpoint International Marketing Pte Ltd (+5), and Eng Hua Company (Pte) Ltd (+6); newcomer Sinopec Fuel Oil (Singapore) gets 19th spot.