Shell starts bunkering LNG in Gibraltar
Shell has completed its first LNG bunkering operation in Gibraltar, the local government reported on March 25, two months after obtaining a licence to do so from authorities.
The Anglo-Dutch major's Coral Methane vessel refuelled the Lomonosov Prospect, an Aframax oil tanker operated by Russian state shipping firm Sovcomflot (SCF). Shell has a LNG bunkering contract with SCF, last week refuelling its Gagarin Prospect Aframax in Florida.
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Gibraltar is Europe's second-largest bunkering port, supplying around 4mn metric tons/year of marine fuels. Its first LNG bunkering operation took place in 2019, carried out by the Netherlands' Titan LNG.
Gibraltar's port minister Vijay Daryanani said Shell's bunkering operation showed that the port was "at the forefront of the drive for greater sustainability and improved environmental performance of the maritime industry internationally, and highlights the key strengths of the port, namely our adaptability and responsiveness to the wider trends developing within the industry."
"This is another great milestone for the expansion of LNG as a maritime fuel globally," the general manager of Shell Global Downstream LNG, Tahir Faruqui, added. "The start-up of this location means the fuelling requirements of tankers which operate on less predictable routes are increasingly being met."