AET completes first US LNG bunkering op
Singapore's AET has refuelled one of its oil tankers for the first time in the US, with assistance from Shell, the company said on October 9.
The 113,305-dwt Pacific Ruby Aframax tanker was refuelled with 600 metric tons of LNG outside Port Canaveral, using the Q-LNG 4000 bunker barge. Q-LNG 4000 arrived at the port in May and is owned by Q-LNG Transport, but Shell is using it to provide LNG bunkering services under a long-term contract.
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The bunkering operation took nine hours to complete, after which Pacific Ruby continued on its route from Houston in Texas to Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
Shell is one of the largest LNG bunkering providers worldwide, offering the service in 10 countries at 15 ports. In March it bunkered the Sovcomflot (SCF)-owned Gagarin Prospect Aframax with LNG, also outside of Canaveral.
"We look forward to expanding our network coverage in the US to include the Gulf Coast and the East Coast with the recent investment of two additional LNG bunker vessels," its head of downstream LNG, Tahir Faruqui, commented.
AET meanwhile has three Aframax tankers that run on LNG, and is expecting delivery of a fourth for Pacific operations in the fourth quarter. It also has DPSTs operating in the North and Barents seas that use LNG, and is set to receive five dual-fuel very large crude carriers in 2022 and 2023.