Capt Daknash Gansen, Senior Director (Operations & Marine Services) of the Maritime and Port of Authority of Singapore, Singapore, details the country’s development as a sustainable global hub port that champions LNG bunkering.
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s the world’s top bunkering hub, Singapore pursues a long-term commitment to a maritime decarbonisation agenda in building a sustainable global hub port. The Maritime and Port of Authority of Singapore (MPA) signed a Memorandum of Co-operation with the Port of Rotterdam Authority and Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism to form the Future Fuels Port Network last October. The port network will develop a roadmap on adopting clean marine fuels in support of decarbonisation. Besides research and development, the three parties to this network will also co-operate on possible joint bunkering pilot runs with identified shipping lines to drive decarbonisation efforts in the shipping industry. Spearheading green growth and sustainability in Singapore’s maritime industry, MPA sees LNG as a viable and scalable marine fuel in the maritime sector’s transition to a low-carbon future. LNG plays a vital role in MPA’s multi-fuel decarbonisation strategy to reduce the impact of shipping on the environment.
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MPA is focusing on the development of four key elements in the LNG supply chain: bunker supply, bunkering infrastructure, demand promotion, and bunkering standards.
Growing LNG bunker supply and developing bunkering infrastructure To establish an end-to-end supply chain for LNG bunkering in the Port of Singapore, MPA awarded LNG bunker supplier licences to FueLNG Pte Ltd and Pavilion Energy Singapore Pte Ltd in 2016. Since then, MPA has been working closely with its licensees to ensure an adequate supply of LNG bunker and to develop LNG bunkering infrastructure with the capacity to serve ocean-going vessels. For instance, MPA awarded a total of S$6 million to co-fund the building of two LNG bunker vessels for regular ship-to-ship LNG bunkering in the Port of Singapore. The first of these two vessels, FueLNG Bellina, arrived in Singapore in October 2020. The vessel undertook Asia’s first ship-to-containership LNG bunkering
