Top shipping industry figures see LNG as bunker fuel of the future

Time:2013-03-25 Browse:49 Author:RISINGSUN
LNG is the bunker fuel of the future, and is direction in which the shipping industry will head, participants in the Sea Asia CEO Roundtable and media conference said.


"The fuel of the future is gas," said Precious Shipping Ltd managing director Khalid Hashim. However, the path to developing the supply chain for LNG bunker fuel remains a "chicken and egg" dynamic, where there needs to be more supply points globally for ships to refuel.


This, however, was dependent on national governments` willingness to invest in developing the infrastructure for supply. Demand from shipowners was also in turn dependent on how many supply points they could rely on for refueling, Hashim said.


Governments across the world have been introducing regulations to reduce sulfur emissions from shipping, spurring the industry`s interest in using LNG.


Pacific International Lines Pte Ltd managing director SS Teo echoed Hashim`s sentiments and said the technology for ship engines to use LNG as a fuel was already in place but the main issue here was supply and the logistical placement of the LNG gas tank on board vessels because it would take up a large amount of space.


While LNG bunker fuel was closer to reality for harbor craft and short sea voyage vessels, it was definitely more of a challenge for vessels on long-haul voyages to use LNG as bunker fuel due to the lack of supply points along such long voyages, Teo added.


Distillates were previously thought to be the main alternative to fuel oil as a bunker fuel but not all refineries globally had been able to invest in upgrading their systems to produce more distillates. There was also a cost to upgrading to cater for more distillates production and someone would have to pay for it, which would likely be the consumer in the end, Teo said.


While the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore was working to issue bunkering standards for LNG bunkering by late 2014 and early 2015, the reality of LNG as the main fuel for all types of ships was not likely to come abut in the next two-three years, said MPA CEO Lam Yi Young.


At present, the only country in the world with a fully operational supply chain for LNG bunkering for coastal vessels was Norway, where the government had invested heavily in the infrastructure, Hashim said.


Singapore was another example where the government has also started developing and investing in this area, but LNG bunkering remained an area that most governments around the world had not even thought about in depth, he added.