Swedish-flag, dual-fuel product and chemical tanker Fure Ven became the first non-US-flagged vessel to bunker LNG in a US port
Owned and operated by Sweden’s Furetank, the tanker was refuelled by small-scale LNG pioneer and bunker supplier Eagle LNG Partners at Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) in Jacksonville, Florida.
The 18,000-dwt vessel transited the St Johns River on 1 September, calling at JAXPORT’s Talleyrand Marine Terminal which serves Crowley Maritime Corporation. Eagle LNG Partners transferred 225 tonnes of LNG to the vessel from their onsite storage facility, with the bunkering taking less than seven hours to complete.
Fure Ven was laden with renewable diesel cargo for Swedish petroleum and biofuels company Preem.
Shipping logistics and marine services provider GAC Group assisted by broking the LNG fuel and providing ship agency services to the vessel during its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It was the first time GAC’s Bunker Fuels division had secured a deal to supply LNG as a marine fuel.
Fure Ven is one of Furetank’s V-Series product and chemical tankers introduced in 2018, which incorporate design features and LNG to deliver a fuel reduction of approximately 40% as compared to vessels of a similar size and earlier designs.
According to a study from the Swedish Environmental Research Institute in 2017, the reductions achieved by Fure Ven during this voyage alone have been calculated as an economic saving for the global community of more than US$200,000, thanks to a reduction in the negative impacts of climate change and air pollution on human health and agriculture. If liquefied biogas was bunkered, CO2 emissions would be eliminated completely.
Furetank chief executive Lars Höglund noted Furetank decided to convert one of its vessels to LNG propulsion in 2014. Mr Höglund said Furetank “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.”
Added Mr Höglund, LNG bunkering is “becoming available in more and more places, not least the US, and we are confident that investing in the V-series particularly contributes to a cleaner environment worldwide.”
Eagle LNG president Sean Lalani said “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 US Coast Guard to safely accomplish this first-ever LNG bunkering in the United States. It is only fitting this first bunkering happens in Jacksonville where JAXPORT, local officials, and the community have embraced the shipping industry’s transition to the more sustainable, affordable LNG.”
Added Mr Lalani “Were it not for the pioneering spirit of our partners at Crowley Maritime, with whom we have already safely completed over 100 bunkering events, and the vision of chairman and chief executive Tom Crowley, this historic milestone for LNG bunkering globally and North Florida would not have been possible.”
Crowley owns and operates two LNG-fuelled conro vessels that operate in the Jones Act trade to Puerto Rico.
Mr Lalani said, “We look forward to utilising our experience and assets to bunker more international vessels from this facility and our future operations in the Caribbean Basin in the coming months and years.”
GAC Bunker Fuels global director Nicholas Browne said “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 Fure Ven, and we are actively being engaged by many of our shipping principals to support their adoption of LNG as a marine fuel.”
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