Editor's Note [12 February 2025] : Article updated on CEPSA 

Two projects involving ammonia and methanol bunkering infrastructures in the ports of Huelva and Algeciras in Spain were among 39 projects to receive funding under the first cut-off deadline of 2024-2025 Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), according to the European Commission recently. 

The first ammonia bunkering infrastructure will be in Algecirasa as part of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley. The project aims to deploy a ship-to-ship ammonia bunkering system in the port of Algeciras. 

It includes a 7500 m3 ammonia bunkering vessel, an on-shore ship loading system and the piping infrastructure for the transport of ammonia from the production site to the loading dock.  

Meanwhile, the first methanol bunkering infrastructure will be in Huelva, also as part of the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley. The project aims to deploy a ship-to-ship methanol bunkering system in the port of Algeciras. 

It includes a 7500 m3 methanol bunkering vessel, an on shore ship loading system and the piping infrastructure for the transport of methanol from the production site to the loading dock.

The coordinator for both bunkering projects is Spanish bunker fuel supplier CEPSA, which has been renamed to Moeve in October last year. 

The European Commission said the EU is allocating nearly EUR 422 million to the 39 projects that will deploy alternative fuels supply infrastructure along the trans-European transport network (TEN-T), contributing to decarbonisation. 

With this selection, the AFIF will support other projects including approximately 2,500 electric recharging points for light-duty vehicles and 2,400 for heavy-duty vehicles along the European TEN-T road network, 35 hydrogen refuelling stations for cars, trucks and buses, the electrification of ground handling services in eight airports and the greening of nine ports.

Following EU Member States’ approval of the selected projects on 4 February, the European Commission will adopt the award decision in the coming months, after which the results will become definitive. 

The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) has started the preparation of the grant agreements with the beneficiaries of successful projects.

Note: The full list of successful projects can be viewed here.

Photo credit: Guillaume Périgois on Unsplash
Published: 11 February, 2025

Norwegian state-owned enterprise Enova on Wednesday (5 February) announced 15 projects have been awarded pre-project funding to explore investments in bunkering facilities for ammonia as a marine fuel.

The projects cover the Norwegian coast from the Oslo Fjord in the south to Troms in the north.

"We received more applications than we had expected in this round. This shows that many players are working purposefully on projects to offer bunkering of ammonia to the maritime sector, and this is gratifying to see,” said Børge Noddeland, who is responsible for the Pre-project maritime technology support programme.

The companies to receive support for their projects are:

• Ammonia AS
• AZANE Fuel Solutions 
• Boreal sjø AS
• Grieg Group Ammonia Distribution Vessels AS
• Hitra Municipality 
• Iverson eFuels AS 
• Neptun Tromsø AS
• Skiga AS

The projects receive up to NOK 500,000 (USD 44,463) in support, and have six months to mature the projects towards a possible investment decision and realisation of the projects. In the next round, the best projects will be able to apply for investment support from Enova for the upcoming support programme "Bunkering plants for ammonia." 

"To succeed with this initiative, we are dependent on good projects in all parts of the value chain. Now an important next step is to establish infrastructure for bunkering ammonia along the Norwegian coast,” said Sigmund Ø. Størset, goal manager for hydrogen at Enova.

“It is therefore very positive to see that so many players are working on this part of the value chain, and that the geographical spread of the projects covers large parts of the Norwegian coast.”

Photo credit: Max van den Oetelaar on Unsplash
Published: 6 February, 2025

Hapag-Lloyd on Tuesday (4 February) said it has fully secured USD 4 billion long-term financing for 24 new LNG dual-fuel, ammonia-ready containerships that it ordered from two Chinese shipyards last October. 

Of these, 12 newbuildings – each with a capacity of 16,800 TEU – will be built by Yangzijiang Shipbuilding Group. These units will be used to expand the capacity of services that are already in place. 

An additional 12 ships, each with a capacity of 9,200 TEU, have been ordered from New Times Shipbuilding Company Ltd. and will replace older units in the Hapag-Lloyd fleet that will be nearing the end of their service life in this decade.

The ships will be equipped with low-emission and fuel-efficient high-pressure liquefied gas dual-fuel engines. 

In addition, these vessels can be operated using biomethane, which can reduce CO2e emissions by up to 95% compared to conventional propulsion systems. The new ships will also be ammonia ready.

Hapag-Lloyd will take delivery of the new vessels between 2027 and 2029. The newbuildings will have a combined capacity of 312,000 TEU.

The financing consists of four components. Around USD 900 million of the purchase price will be financed using the company’s own funds. A total of USD 500 million will be made available from two banks in the form of bilateral mortgage loans.

Another part, in the amount of USD 1.8 billion, will be financed via three leasing structures, and USD 1.1 billion will be financed via a syndicated credit facility backed by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure). The financing share amounts to a total of around 80% of the investment volume, with maturities ranging between 10 and 18 years.

The financing will be carried out on the basis of Hapag-Lloyd’s Green Financing Framework, which in turn complies with the standards of the Green Loan Principles of the Loan Market Association (LMA). This has been verified by an independent expert opinion of the international classification society DNV, as has the high efficiency of the ships and their compliance with the EU Taxonomy.

“We are continuously modernizing our fleet in order to deliver a high quality of service and to achieve our ambitious decarbonization goals,” said Mark Frese, CFO/CPO of Hapag-Lloyd AG. 

“The successful conclusion of several attractive financial transactions confirms that green financing components are becoming increasingly important. In addition, we are pleased to be able to finance newbuild projects in China for the first time with the Sinosure transaction.”

Photo credit: Hapag-Lloyd
Published: 5 February, 2025