Singapore yard to develop ammonia bunker vessel design

A subsidiary of Kuok Singapore Limited, PaxOcean owns and operates five shipyards located in Singapore, China and Indonesia. PaxOcean will focus on developing designs for ammonia-fuelled and ammonia bunkering vessels, and BV will verify compliance with its classification rules.

Hong Lam Marine will provide input on operational data and validate the suitability of the ship design for commercial operations. The company operates a fleet of about 36 tankers operating in Singapore, Malaysia and Australia for bunkering fuels, bulk lubricants supply and the carriage of Jet A-1 to Changi Airport. Other vessels operate regionally transporting petroleum, chemical products and asphalt.

David Barrow, Vice President, South Asia Zone of Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, said: “Ammonia has great potential as a zero-carbon marine fuel and can play a significant role to help shipping reach its decarbonisation goals, but to fulfil this potential, more work is needed to overcome the safety and operational challenges. These challenges can be overcome through cross-industry collaboration, and we are very pleased to be working with PaxOcean and Hong Lam Marine to develop an ammonia bunker vessel design that de-risks ammonia as a marine fuel.”

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) welcomed the move. Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of MPA, said: “I congratulate the collaboration between Bureau Veritas, Paxocean Engineering and Hong Lam Marine to study the design of bunkering vessels with alternate future fuels such as ammonia. As a major bunkering hub, this forward-looking collaboration aligns with our maritime decarbonization efforts to be ready for a multi-fuel bunkering transition to support the future of international shipping.”