Green methanol supplier selected for first Maersk voyage

OCI will provide ISCC certified green biomethanol produced from Municipal Solid Waste over the maiden voyage of Maersk’s first dual-fuelled container ship. Upon arrival in Europe, the vessel is expected to service the Baltic shipping route between northern Europe and the Bay of Bothnia. 

The vessel leaves South Korea for its maiden voyage this summer, sailing along one of the world’s busiest shipping routes to Northern Europe via the Suez Canal, bunkering at several major ports along its journey. OCI is obtaining the approvals and permits required to commercially bunker methanol in several ports on the ship’s voyage, including Port of Rotterdam. This will position OCI as a commercial bunker operator of methanol in these regions.

OCI anticipates incremental global demand for methanol at 4 million tons per year in the next five years, based on current orders from the marine sector. The company has identified the expansion of its renewable and low-carbon fuels business as a key pillar of its sustainable growth strategy. 

OCI is focused on being the last mile operator of choice at strategic bunkering ports, leveraging partnerships with relevant authorities and certification bodies, terminal infrastructure partners, and bunker barge operators. In February, OCI announced its project with Unibarge to retrofit the first methanol powered bunker barge, to be deployed at the Port of Rotterdam.

Green fuel supply

Through its OCI HyFuels brand, OCI is the largest green methanol producer globally. It has led the development of green methanol application in vehicle fuels, now placing up to 200,000 tons per annum equivalent and is growing its suite of low-carbon and green methanol products.

In anticipation of expected demand for renewable and low carbon ammonia and methanol, OCI has announced several major projects to significantly increase sustainable production of its two core products.

These include GasifHy, the gasification project at its existing European methanol facility to shift it to green methanol production; a 1.1mtpa blue ammonia plant in Texas, USA, scheduled to start production in 2025 and its Egypt Green ammonia facility through Fertiglobe (a strategic partnership between OCI and ADNOC), where the first tons of green ammonia from electrolysis were produced earlier this year.