North American LNG bunkering readies to meet the surge of new LNG-powered ships

Sunshine State: LNG bunkering hub

Work is progressing on Clean Canaveral – which will be the largest LNG bunker supply vessel by capacity in the US – at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. The 5,400-m³ capacity LNG ATB will join Polaris New Energy’s fleet in Q4 2021. Polaris New Energy is the marine logistics arm of NorthStar Midstream, which – along with Pivotal LNG – is expanding JAX LNG, the small-scale LNG facility that will provide the chilled cargo to Clean Canaveral.

Crowley’s two dual-fuel LNG-powered conro vessels have been supported since they went into service between Jacksonville and San Juan by Eagle LNG’s Talleyrand Bunkering Station. It marked its 100^th LNG bunkering operation for the two vessels in August 2020, and the first LNG bunkering of an international-flagged vessel, Fure Ven, in the US in September. A pioneer in small-scale LNG and bunkering in the US, Eagle LNG has its sights set on further expansion with the Jacksonville LNG Export facility.

Florida is not the only area where LNG is readily available as a fuel in the US. Harvey Gulf International Marine’s LNG bunkering facility in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, has been supporting the OSV owner’s dual-fuel, LNG-powered platform supply vessels for years.

A recent report by SEA/LNG detailed the growing global LNG supply infrastructure. The accompanying graphic shows LNG bunkering facilities in operation and in development, with a heavy concentration in Europe.

Bunkering north of the border

North of the border in Canada, LNG for bunkering is available by truck in the Port of Montreal, and – for the first time last year – at Port Hamilton in Ontario on the Great Lakes.

On the west coast in Vancouver, FortisBC supplies LNG by truck from its Tilbury LNG facility for LNG-fuelled ferries owned by BC Ferries and Seaspan.

“FortisBC is actively looking for opportunities to provide LNG from our Tilbury facility as a low-cost, lower-carbon fuel for the marine sector, and for overseas customers looking to displace coal, oil or wood for fuel,” says FortisBC spokesperson Scott Neufeld. “Tilbury is powered by renewable hydroelectricity which lowers the carbon intensity of our LNG compared to other facilities. Tilbury also plays an important role in storing a backup supply of energy for our gas utility customers.”

Adds Mr Neufeld: “There are also a number of other customers interested in our LNG as a marine fuel and we are working with partners like Seaspan and Vancouver Fraser Port Authority to establish Vancouver as an LNG refuelling hub. A key component of our expansion plans is a marine jetty proposed to be built next to our facility to enable ship-to-ship LNG refuelling. The jetty is being proposed by a partnership to be owned by affiliates of Fortis and Seaspan. If the environmental assessment is approved, construction of the jetty could begin later this year.”

FortisBC is in a phased expansion of the small-scale Tilbury LNG that will significantly increase its storage and production capacity to meet the rising demand for LNG as a fuel. FortisBC is investing US$14.6M on an expansion of Tilbury LNG’s truck loading capacity “to better serve marine, truck transport and overseas customers,” says Mr Neufeld.

Among those overseas customers is China, which has been importing LNG via ISO container from Tilbury LNG since 2017.

Plans are moving forward for Canada’s first LNG ATB. Cryopeak LNG anticipates moving towards FID on the LNG bunker barge by the end of 2021, with the start of operations in 2023, delivering LNG as a fuel to shipping companies calling at ports on the west coast.

South of Vancouver in the Port of Tacoma, the first LNG bunkering facility on the US west coast will be ready to open in Q2 2021. Tacoma LNG will be a multi-use facility, providing LNG for Puget LNG’s commercial customers, and the necessary natural gas reserves for PSE’s utility customers. Its main maritime consumers will be TOTE Maritime Alaska’s dual-fuel, LNG-fuelled Orca-class roro vessels, which operate weekly between Tacoma and Alaska.

You can find out more and register for Riviera’s LNG Bunkering & Refuelling Conference, Americas, 18-19 February 2021 here.