LNG on the Rise in Rotterdam
LNG is being used more and more in the port of Rotterdam, the port authority said on November 12, with nine LNG bunkering vessels now operating in the area.
The Gas Agility bunkering vessel of France's Total began refuelling the Jacques Saade containership, owned by French cargo shipper CMA CGM, on the morning of November 12 with 18,000 m3 of LNG, the port said. The operation took 16 hours to complete. Gas Agility is the largest LNG bunkering vessel in the world, and was launched at the Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in China in October last year.
"Like CMA CGM, we support the transition from heavy fuel oil to LNG as a transport fuel for shipping," the port said, noting LNG was the cleanest fuel that is both scalable and affordable for vessels of such size. The port aspires to become a key hub for import, export, storage and bunkering of LNG, it said.
Total has a ten-year deal to provide CMA CGM with 300,000 metric tons/year of LNG bunkering fuel. Jacques Saade was delivered to CMA CGM in September 2020 and is the first of nine large-sized LNG containerships ordered by the shipowner in 2017 from China State Shupbuilding Corp.
(Banner picture courtesy of the Port of Rotterdam)