LNG

Shipping subsidiaries of energy majors Chevron Corp. and TotalEnergies along with the LNG and gas cargoes carrier company Seapeak, have joined a global technology-led initiative for cleaner shipping.

The Methane Abatement in Maritime Innovation Initiative (MAMII) is led by SafetyTech Accelerator, a firm established by UK maritime classification society Lloyd’s Register.

“Our mission is to make the world safer and more sustainable through wider adoption of technology,” said SafetyTech Accelerator.

TotalEnergies and Chevron joins the group with Seapeak, which was formerly known as Teekay LNG and alone has over 90 gas carriers, including 50 LNG tankers.

The three companies join the now more than 20 members of MAMII, emphasising its pivotal role in addressing methane abatement within the maritime sector.

Contributions

Chevron, Seapeak and TotalEnergies have pledged to bring their valuable insights and commitment to the critical challenge of “methane slip”, an escape of gas that adds to pollution from dual-fuel engines or other technology.

The initiative has additionally selected four technology providers to produce feasibility studies on the technologies which will reduce methane emissions from ships.

“The release of unburnt methane is a key obstacle to unlocking the full environmental potential of LNG as a maritime fuel,” said a statement.

Now in its second year, MAMII was launched in September 2022 by Safetytech Accelerator, bringing together industry leaders, technology innovators and maritime stakeholders to mitigate methane emissions.

“Chevron Shipping is very pleased to join MAMII. We are committed to reducing methane emissions from our LNG carriers and MAMII is an excellent opportunity for us to work with industry leaders on sharing best practices and exploring new technologies,” said Lloyd Bland, a senior manager at Chevron Shipping.

Chris McDade, Vice President of Operations at Seapeak said that LNG was already the preferred choice versus traditional marine fuels.

“However, but even more can be done to minimise the environmental impact,” McDade added.

Partners

“As a MAMII anchor partner, our fleet will directly participate in feasibility studies, new equipment trials and testing of technical solutions to reduce or eliminate methane slip from LNG vessels,” he stated.

The initiative is currently focussed on “on-ship” trials, expanding the range of pilot projects and starting to address fugitive methane emissions covering the entire spectrum of emissions on LNG-fuelled vessels.

“As the world's third-largest LNG player, we are delighted to be joining the MAMII initiative and contribute our expertise in reducing the emissions all along the gas value chain,” said Jerome Cousin, Senior Vice President of Shipping at TotalEnergies.

“It is key for TotalEnergies to further improve the environmental benefits of LNG as a marine fuel, already a major decarbonization lever for the maritime industry,” Cousin added.

The full list of MAMII members: Capital Gas, Carnival Corp. Celsius Tankers, Chevron, CoolCo, JPMorgan, Knutsen Group, Lloyd’s Register, Maran Gas Maritime, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Mitsui OSK Lines, MISC, NYK Line, Seapeak, Seaspan Corp., Shell, TMS Cardiff Gas, TotalEnergies, UK P&I Club and United Overseas Management.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line, increased fiscal first-half profits and revenues from shipping liquefied natural gas and other fuels worldwide as it also ordered five new LNG carriers to add to its fleet of 58 owned and co-owned LNG vessels.

NYK’s revenues soared by 30 percent for the six months from April to the end of September 2022 and amounted to 1.36 trillion Japanese yen ($9.31 billion) compared with 1.05 trillion yen ($7.16Bln) in the fiscal first-half of 2021.

Profits jumped by 71 percent and came to 706.06Bln ($4.81Bln) versus 411.32Bln yen ($2.80Bln) in the same six months of last year.

NYK said the profits grew even as bunkered fuel costs for its fleet of ships jumped by 76 percent year-on-year to average $839.95 per ton versus $477.42 per ton in the same six months of 2021.

The NYK LNG carriers are in the energy fleet of the company’s Bulk Shipping division.

The company’s fleet comprises 658 owned and co-owned vessels, including in the largest sector 382 bulk carriers, 113 energy tankers and associated vessels, 108 car carriers and 55 containerships.

Contracts

“In the LNG carriers unit, the results were steady based on support from the long-term contracts that generate stable earnings. Also, in the offshore business, FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading), drill ship and shuttle tankers were generally steady as expected,” said NYK.

Overall Bulk Shipping revenues came to 616.4 billion yen ($4.20Bln) in the six-month period.

In the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market, NYK said that there was a further rebounded off market lows from July. Then, after oil prices fell in mid-August following the release from the strategic petroleum reserve in the United States, shipments of oil from the Middle East and US in particular rose to destinations in Europe and Asia.

“Due in part to this, the use of VLCCs increased, causing supply-and- demand conditions to tighten and the market to rapidly recover. Thereafter, the higher shipment volumes continued into September,” explained NYK.

“In the petrochemical tanker market, due to the impact of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, the origin of shipments bound for Europe shifted from Russia to the United States, Middle East and India, resulting in longer sailing distances,” the company added.

NYK also said that a consortium it is part of had signed a long-term time-charter contract with QatarEnergy for five LNG carriers for delivery between 2025 and 2026 for Qatar's expansion of LNG production.

The partners of NYK in the newbuilds contract are Malaysian shipping company MISC Group and China LNG Shipping.

Shanghai yard

The joint-venture companies have executed shipbuilding contracts for the five vessels with 174,000 cubic metres capacity with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of Shanghai.

“Over the past 39 years since the delivery of the LNG carrier ‘Echigo Maru’ in 1983, NYK has continued to enhance its LNG safety and expertise and worldwide LNG transport network,” said the company.

“The skills that NYK has acquired in safe and optimized navigation, the construction of LNG carriers, and high-level ship-management quality have earned high regard from QatarEnergy, leading to the successful conclusion of this contract,” declared the Chiyoda City-based shipping line.

“NYK and QatarEnergy have had a long-term relationship with several existing projects and the relationship will be further extended through this contract,” it added.

NYK said these five vessels will be equipped with the latest propulsion in the X-DF 2.1 iCER engines designed by Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD), headquartered in Switzerland.

The X-DF low-speed, dual-fuel engines use gas admitted at low pressure and will reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency.

The company added that the five LNG newbuilds will be around 299 metres in length with a moulded breadth of 46.40M and with speed capability of 19.5 knots.

MISC Group, the Malaysian shipping company, has completed its first liquefied natural gas bunkering operation in US waters off Port Canaveral in Florida for one of the LNG-powered oil tankers owned by subsidiary AET.