Shipping community divided on LNG as bunkering fuel

LNG's limited greenhouse gas (GHG) savings compared with fuel oil could hamper its advent as a bunkering fuel of choice in the coming decades, delegates heard at industry events held during London International Shipping Week.

Although LNG is a solution to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter (PM), it is not the solution for GHG, the director of the institute for sustainable resources at University College London (UCL) Paul Ekins said at the flagship London International Shipping Week conference today. Accounting for emissions through the whole supply chain, LNG used as a bunkering fuel reduces GHG emissions only by 20pc compared with fuel oil, consultancy E4Tech senior consultant Lizzie German said yesterday at an International Chamber of Shipping event. GHG savings could be up to 25pc, industry-led Oil and Gas Climate Initiative's (OGCI's) Michael Traver also said yesterday.

Using hydrogen or ammonia as fuels for long-haul shipping propulsion would achieve much higher GHG savings, while electrification may be best suited to short-haul voyages, delegates heard. These technologies would fit better with emissions reduction targets in line with the Paris agreement.

But the use of LNG as a bunkering fuel is helped by the fact that it is plentiful and cheaper than other alternative fuels and benefits from existing infrastructure at ports. LNG is compliant with the IMO's 2020 0.5pc sulphur cap, and propulsion engines using LNG are already widely marketed. Hydrogen and ammonia-ready propulsion technologies are further from being marketable, as outstanding safety and cargo size issues still need to be addressed, delegates heard. But LNG still requires shipowners to invest in new vessels.

And savings made by increases in engine efficiencies could be offset by an expected rise in overall flows, energy transitions commission chairman UK Lord Adair Turner said yesterday.

But shipowners with ageing fleets may have to turn to more readily available technologies when placing orders, before hydrogen and ammonia-ready propulsion systems and related infrastructure are available at scale. While several shipowners supported the use of LNG as a transition fuel, chief executive of shipowner Torvald Klaveness Lasse Kristoffersen said the urgency of developing zero-emissions propulsion technologies left no time to invest in a 20pc GHG-saving fuel such as LNG.