Novatek Joins SEA\LNG

Russian independent gas producer Novatek's trading subsidiary has joined the SEA\LNG trade association and the Society for Gas as a Marine Fuel (SGMF) to help promote LNG as a marine bunker fuel. It said both organisations are active in promoting the increased use of LNG as a cleaner alternative to other ship fuels.

Novatek Gas & Power becomes SEA\LNG's first Russian member, as well as the group's 27th member following the admission of Japan's Yokohama-Kawasaki International Port Corporation which joined earlier this week.

Novatek CEO Leonid Mikhelson said: "The recent adoption of stricter emission standards for marine transportation by 2020 is consistent with our strategy for entering into new prospective LNG market segments including bunkering.  Global environmental requirements create the basis for transiting global fleet toward cleaner types of fuels. We are confident that more shipping companies will opt for LNG to meet these stricter requirements, and we are ready to facilitate the LNG bunkering market and infrastructure development".

SGMF promotes safety and industry best practice and encourages training within the industry; it is seen more as a technical than lobbying group. 

It's a year since Switzerland-registered Novatek Gas & Power supplied its first spot cargo, a non-equity cargo that it sourced from Trinidad and shipped to Chile.

Mark Smedley