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LEADING EDGE
Two recent reports have shown LNG to be the clear favourite in the race to comply with IMO 2020 — but it isn’t all plain sailing
LNG IS HERE TO STAY – FOR NOW It has become pretty obvious over the past few months that LNG is the frontrunner — for the time being — in the race to comply with the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) low-sulphur fuel edict, which became mandatory on 1 January 2020. This was despite a recent attack on the fuel by the World Bank, which promoted a rigorous response from the LNG lobbyists, most notably SEA-LNG. Two reports both published in April seem to confirm this view and two classification societies have also produced figures showing the rise in the number of ships ordered stipulating LNG as a fuel. However, the different fuel system lobbyists are still claiming that LNG will only be an interim fuel until something else is adopted ahead of the total ban on fossil fuels, while some pundits have queried the building of “LNG-ready” tonnage, saying that the cost of retrofits was prohibitive. The reports — one researched by a leading UK broking house, the other by academic experts and commissioned by organisations with vested interests in
LNG — said that the use of natural gas was continuing to grow, as was the infrastructure to back it. Gibson Shipbrokers and DNV analysed the number of vessels either running on LNG or earmarked to operate on the fuel in the future. There will always be exceptions to any rule and for LNG-fuelled vessels, this was no different. Fortescue Metal Group (FMG) decided to cancel a tender for 10 LNGfuelled 209,000dwt bulkers, which was only circulated earlier this year, in favour of ammonia-powered vessels. While this is very far sighted of FMG, it will mean that it will have to wait until at least 2025 before a suitable engine is available, with actual vessel deliveries maybe several years after that, Gibson said. Of course, the reason for this change of heart was purely commercial as FMG plans to build a green ammonia production facility in Tasmania, which will provide a new fuel source for the company. However, Gibson pointed out that there were still a large number of companies
C L E A N S H I P P I N G INTERNATIONAL – Summer 2021
