First USA ship-to-ship Aframax LNG bunkering
On 15 March, Sovcomflot’s Gagarin Prospect was en route from Corpus Christi to Europe when it received 1,075 cubic metres of marine LNG from the Shell NA LNG LLC chartered Q-LNG 4000 outside the Port of Canaveral, Florida.
This event demonstrates the rapid expansion of LNG bunkering infrastructure globally. “We are pleased that Shell has opened up LNG fuelling along this important transatlantic trade route, demonstrating that marine LNG fuelling infrastructure is no longer limited to hubs in Northern Europe and Singapore,” said Sergey Popravko, chief operating officer of SCF Group.
The deviation from the vessel’s usual voyage route amounted to less than 150 nautical miles and the bunkering time was 11 hours. LNG can now be supplied ship-to-ship on the principal transatlantic tanker trade routes between Europe and the US Gulf, and the US Gulf and East Coast Canada, which has seen traffic increasing rapidly as a result of the growth in WTI crude exports from the US Gulf.
SCF’s technical team estimates that using LNG for this voyage instead of conventional fuels has reduced CO2 emissions by 62%, NOx by 97% and eliminated SOx emissions entirely. The fuel economy from using LNG as a main fuel amounts to 10-12% compared to conventional fuels.
