Mexican Firm Joins LNG Bunker Group

SEA\LNG, the multi-sector industry coalition launched July 2016 that aims to accelerate LNG's use as a global bunker fuel, said August 9 it has welcomed its 34th member. It describes Mexico's Enestas as the largest private LNG company in that country, which distributes to its customers by road and ship. Details of the extent of its distribution network however were not available on the Enestas website.

Enestas CEO Caio Zapata said: “We expect LNG to become the dominant fuel for transportation by road, rail, and sea. LNG is currently the most safe, clean, and economically viable marine fuel on the market and will continue to substitute diesel as the fuel of choice. We’re excited to be part of SEA\LNG."

The latter's chairman, Peter Keller, who is executive vice president of US shipowner Tote Inc said: "With several ports under development in North America, including in the Gulf of Mexico, we look forward to leveraging Enestas’ vast network and capabilities within the region to support the continued growth and investment in LNG bunkering infrastructure.”

The UN's International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on October 27 2016  set January 2020 as the year of implementation of its 0.5% global cap on sulphur in fuels. At that point, SEA\LNG had yet to coalesce behind a position of pushing for the 0.5% cap's introduction on January 1 2020; indeed some of its oil and shipowner members were advocating its introduction five years later in 2025, arguing the supply infrastructure would not be ready by 2020. Although there's still some concern about that, significant advances have been achieved by investors and governments to roll out infrastructure over the past two years.