First ever Singapore ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation completed

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - The first-ever ship-to-ship bunkering of an LNG-fuelled oil tanker in Singapore has been completed by FueLNG, a joint venture between Keppel Offshore & Marine and Shell Eastern Petroleum, the company said Friday.

The Shell-owned aframax Pacific Emerald was supplied with 3,000 cubic metres of LNG by Singapore's first bunkering LNG vessel, FueLNG Bellina.

"LNG is the lowest emission fuel available at scale in the shipping sector today and has a key role in its decarbonisation journey," said Tahir Faruqui, Director of FueLNG and Head of Shell Downstream LNG.

"We are also investing in LNG for our own long-term charter fleet to deliver our products like the oil tanker fuelled today."

The Singapore first follows the completion of Asia's first ship-to-containership LNG bunkering operation by FueLNG in March 2021 and the company hopes to provide a total of about 30 to 50 ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operations in 2021.

Besides the Aframax tankers, FueLNG has also lined up bunkering operations for containerships, chemical oil tankers and bulk carriers, said the statement.

Singapore has been promoting itself as a low-carbon bunkering hub and last month announced a 120 million Singapore dollar ($90 million) fund to establish a maritime decarbonisation centre.