Shell to Refuel Car Carriers with LNG

Shell says it has signed a long-term agreement to bunker two giant new car-carrier ships with LNG.

The supermajor said late on October 5 that, through its subsidiaries Shell NA LNG and Shell Western LNG, it has been contracted to supply SIEM Car Carriers with LNG to fuel the two new ships, expected to be delivered in 2019. Shell plans to refuel the vessels in northwest Europe and at a US supply point.

Although not the first LNG-fuelled car carriers afloat, they are destined to become the first to operate intercontinentally between Europe and the US.

However, London-based SIEM has yet to announce a firm construction order for the two ships, although internal sources say they are already being built at a Chinese yard. Emissions-scandal hit Volkswagen said in October 2016 that it had agreed with SIEM to use the vessels, each of which can carry 4,500 cars.

Shell's downstream LNG general manager Lauran Wetemans said: "This agreement is an important development for Shell's growing LNG fuels business." He added that Shell looked forward to future opportunities of working with SIEM Car Carriers by providing LNG as a cleaner burning fuel.

The agreement is the latest order for Shell's LNG bunkering business, which it has expanded since it bought the Norwegian firm GasNor in 2012.

In April this year it agreed to supply Russia’s Sovcomflot with LNG to power the world's first LNG-powered Aframax crude oil tankers; they will also transport oil products.

Last October, Shell was contracted to refuel the world's first LNG-powered cruise ships, when it signed up the Carnival Corporation as a customer starting 2019. This summer Shell took delivery of the specialist LNG bunkering vessel Cardissa.

Mark Smedley