Record orders for LNG-fuelled tonnage, including container ships and tankers, are driving the expansion of bunkering options in Europe and Asia
A rapidly expanding global fleet of LNG-fuelled ships, particularly in the container, tanker and cruise sectors, is underpinning continued growth in the LNG bunker vessel market, and LNG demand.
Following on from record ordering in 2021 that saw 240 LNG-fuelled vessels contracted at shipyards, DNV principal consultant Martin Christian Wold reports 40 more gas-powered vessels were added to the DNV Alternative Fuels database in January. While some of the vessels were ordered last year, Mr Wold says in a social media post: “Growth again is being driven by large container ships, and this round it was MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company in particular pushing the total count of LNG-fuelled ships confirmed to nearly 700.” DNV now puts the fleet numbers at 694 gas-powered ships in operation and under construction, with the 213 LNG-ready ships for a total fleet of 907.
Mr Wold also notes that the record-setting LNG-fuelled tonnage last year added 3 mta of LNG demand.
This demand is being met by an increasingly larger LNG bunkering fleet, which now stands at 35 in operation and another 24 under construction set for delivery on or before 2024. Other vessels under consideration could push the fleet of LNGBVs to 75.
One of the newest, the TotalEnergies-chartered Gas Vitality, is stationed in Marseille, one of the busiest ports and cruise terminals in the Mediterranean. The LNG bunker vessel loaded 6.000 m3 of LNG into the 15,000-TEU CMA CGM Bali in January, marking the first ship-to-container ship refuelling at the Port of Marseille Fos in January. The fifth LNGBV in the Mediterranean and first in southern France, Gas Vitality, performed the refuelling operation at the Eurofos container terminal while CMA CGM Bali was being reloaded with cargo. Such simultaneous operations (SIMOPS) – refuelling while transferring cargo – are becoming more commonplace as the market matures.
“Growth again is being driven by large container ships”
TotalEnergies vice president marine fuels Jérôme Leprince-Ringuet says the deployment of Gas Vitality, “underscores the company’s commitment to support the French port’s ambition to be an LNG bunkering hub for the Mediterranean region,” adding it “also demonstrates our continued support to the growing role of LNG in shipping’s energy transition.”
TotalEnergies’ strategy has been to charter large-capacity LNGBVs to more efficiently serve gas-powered cruise ships and container ships. Since November 2020, TotalEnergies has been operating Gas Vitality’s sister, the 18,600-m³ Gas Agility, at the Port of Rotterdam and completed the first LNG bunkering operation of CMA CGM Jacques Saade, the world’s largest dual-fuel LNG-powered vessel.
Built to Bureau Veritas class, Gas Vitality was delivered in October by China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding. With a length of 135.9 m, beam of 24.5 m and depth of 16 m, the French-flagged Gas Vitality is fitted with a GTT Mark III Flex membrane cargo-containment system with a capacity of 18,600 m3, making it one of the world’s largest LNGBVs.
It is owned by Emerald Blue Maritime, a subsidiary of Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), which reported it completed a sustainability-linked loan in November to back the financing of the LNG bunker vessel. The loan was provided by Société Générale and Sumitomo Mitsui Baking Corp, with certification of the transition finance framework and a sustainability-linked instrument by DNV.
Corsica Linea signed an agreement with Titan LNG to supply LNG and bioLNG in the Port of Marseille for the new ropax ferry A Galeotta. Under construction at Visentini Shipyard in Italy, the LNG-fuelled A Galeotta will be delivered in May 2022.
Titan LNG will provide fuel via truck-to-ship transfers until its new 4,500-m3 LNG bunker vessel Krios is delivered in 2023.
Mediterranean bunkering growth
Italy’s Fratelli Cosulich Group will add to future LNG bunkering capacity in the Mediterranean when it commissions its first LNGBV in 2023. Being built at China’s Nantong CIMC SOE shipyard, the vessel is primed to serve a multi-fuel market, with a capacity of 8,200 m3 of LNG and 500 m3 of marine gasoil. Wärtsilä Gas Solutions is supplying a complete engineering, design and equipment supply package for the cargo-handling system, including a loading and discharge system, a boil-off gas (BOG) management control and integrated fuel supply system, as well as the custody transfer and bunkering transfer systems.
AiP for SWATH bunker vessel
A unique LNG bunkering vessel design from CMIT-Europe that applies Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull (SWATH) technology has received an approval-in-principle (AIP) from RINA.
A design arm of the China Merchants Group, CMIT-Europe, Ravenna, Italy, received the AiP in December for WIST – short for Weather Independent Shuttle Tanker. The bunker vessel is designed to transport LNG efficiently in adverse weather conditions in the Mediterranean, while mitigating safety concerns by providing a stable platform for STS operations.
WIST was designed to be capable of carrying at least 2,000 m3 of LNG at speeds of 15 knots in wave conditions encountered in the Mediterranean Sea. WIST’s two torpedo-shaped hulls, which are submerged below the surface of the water, are each fitted with two azimuth thrusters – one at each end – making the vessel highly manoeuvrable.
“LNG is an important fuel on our way to decarbonisation”
SWATH hull forms have been applied to mostly passenger vessel and research vessel designs because they eliminate most of the wave-induced motions in extreme sea states, improving passenger and crew comfort and seasickness, while providing a stable platform.
CMIT-Europe has developed WIST with a side height that is adequate for reloading LNG from a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU).
RINA was awarded a framework contract in 2021 by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) to support initiatives to increase the availability of LNG in the medium term, with small-scale bunkering and depots to expand the use of this fuel throughout the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas.
RINA energy engineering solutions senior director Angelo Lo Nigro, says: “LNG is an important fuel on our way to decarbonisation. The services we will be providing as part of the frame agreement with EMSA will help make LNG storage and bunkering available in port areas and will also bring consistency and guidance for economically developing nations that do not yet have strong experience with small scale LNG.”
The framework agreement runs until 2025.
Growth in Asia and southeast Asia
Gas-powered container ships deployed in Europe-to-Asia services, like CMA CGM Bali, will have additional refuelling options in ports such as Singapore and Shanghai over the next two years.
TotalEnergies will commence operations with its third LNGBV and first to serve Singapore this year. The French energy company was awarded an LNG bunker supplier license for a five-year term starting 1 January 2022.
In 2019, TotalEnergies inked a 10-year full-term agreement with Pavilion Energy Singapore to jointly develop an LNG bunker supply chain in the port of Singapore. The deal follows a heads-of-agreement (HOA) signed between the two companies in June 2018. TotalEnergies Marine Fuels and Pavilion will share a newbuild 12,000-m³ LNGBV under construction at Sembcorp Marine. Owned by MOL, the LMG-designed LNG bunker vessel, equipped with GTT Mark III Flex membrane, was originally scheduled to be delivered in 2021.
FueLNG, the joint venture between Keppel Offshore & Marine and Shell Eastern Petroleum, is the only licensee conducting STS LNG bunkering in Singapore. Since its first STS bunkering operation in March 2021, FueLNG Bellina has provided LNG bunker to 24 vessels, including container ships and Aframax tankers. Of the 24 STS operations, 19 were for CMA CGM container ships. FueLNG performed Asia’s first ship-to-container ship LNG bunkering for CMA CGM Scandola.
“FueLNG reported completing 460 LNG refuellings in 2021”
Overall, FueLNG reported completing 460 LNG refuellings in 2021, comprising STS and truck-to-ship bunkering, and truck-to-industry operations.
Starting this year, five LNG-fuelled Newcastlemax bulk carriers, chartered by BHP to transport iron ore between Western Australia and China, will be refuelled by FueLNG under a supply agreement with Shell. FueLNG will also commence bunkering of 10 LNG-fuelled very large crude carriers (VLCCs) owned by Advantage Tankers, International Seaways, and AET Tankers, which are time-chartered to Shell.
Shanghai’s first LNGBV
The world’s largest container port will now be served by the world’s largest LNG bunker vessel. Under a long-term joint co-operation agreement (JCA) with Shanghai SIPG Energy Service Co, Ltd (SSES), Avenir LNG will support LNG bunkering of CMA CGM’s container ships and other international ships in Shanghai Port. Under the JCA, Avenir will market LNG bunkering services in Shanghai Port. Additionally, Avenir will support SSES with operational and technical services to ensure ’seamless’ LNG bunkering operations for the CMA CGM container ships and gas-powered ships.
This JCA expands Avenir’s bunkering network into China, adding another hub to its existing bunkering network in the Mediterranean, northwest Europe and Malaysia.
In support of establishing Shanghai as a leading LNG bunkering hub, Avenir sold its first LNG bunker and supply newbuild, 20,000-m3 Avenir Allegiance, to SSES.
Commenting on the effort, SIPG engineering and equipment department general manager Dr Luo Wenbin said SIPG is building an “LNG bunkering hub for international vessels in Shanghai Port” by establishing a long-term co-operative relationship with Avenir.
Preparing for future fuels
Fratelli Cosulich Group’s Singapore branch, Fratelli Cosulich Bunkers Singapore, has teamed with RINA and SeaTech Solutions to push design even further, co-operating on a joint development project (JDP) for an ammonia bunkering vessel – one of several such efforts to support the uptake of the zero-carbon fuel. Under the JDP, SeaTech will focus on the ship concept and design, while RINA will verify the compliance with the applicable rules, including the handling of ammonia. Fratelli Cosulich Bunkers Singapore will provide the operational data to support and validate the suitability of the ship design for commercial operations.
© 2023 Riviera Maritime Media Ltd.