Singapore Joint Industry Project on Future LNG Bunkering - The Maritime Executive

Press Release - April 16, 2012 - The Maritime Executive

The JIP, co-funded through MPA’s MINT fund, kicked off in January 2012 with the aim to provide recommendations to the Singapore government authorities on enabling LNG bunkering in Singapore, ensuring operational safety, alignment with industry expectations and best practice, and compliance with relevant international rules, regulations and standards.
The shipping industry is looking to LNG as a cleaner marine fuel to meet the international regulations as LNG has much lower emissions compared to the conventional marine diesel oil. Emissions from ships have come into the “environmental spotlight” and the industry is subject to progressively more stringent legislation, including global cap or fuel sulphur content, potential CO2 emission taxation, NOx emission controls and forthcoming regulations on Particulate Matters’ emission etc.
LNG fuelled propulsion has been demonstrated to meet the strictest environmental regulations and to be technically feasible. At present, there are 25 LNG fuelled ships all of which are operating in the Norwegian Emission Control Area and bunkering from shore facilities. Positive signals from the market also come from the number of LNG fuelled ships being designed and from the 24 LNG fuelled ships on order.
LNG bunkering is a process of refuelling ships by transferring LNG fuel from the LNG carrying trucks, barges or onshore tanks. Switching from conventional marine fuel to LNG fuel provides both environmental and economic benefits to shipowners and public.
However, the most common key barriers to a more widespread adoption of LNG as a fuel for ships seem to be insufficient local LNG supply and immature bunkering infrastructure coupled with a lack of regulatory schemes for both shore-based and ship-to ship bunkering. The feasibility of LNG fuelled shipping also depends on the simultaneous development of the entire value chain; the lack of such concurrent evolution would be a major challenge and increase investment risk for each stakeholder.

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