LNG

French major TotalEnergies has launched its first LNG bunkering operation for containerships at the West Mediterranean Port of Marseille Fos with an LNG-powered 15,000 twenty-foot units (TEU) containership re-fuelled.

The “CMA CGM Bali” operates on the Asia-to-South Europe route for Marseille-based shipping line CMA CGM.

“The containership was refuelled by the bunkering vessel ‘Gas Vitality’, which has 6,000 cubic metres of capacity operated a ship-to-ship transfer alongside the Eurofos container terminal, while the containership carried out cargo operations simultaneously,” explained TotalEnergies.

The “Gas Vitality” is the second LNG bunker vessel chartered by TotalEnergies from the owner, Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines.

“This entire operation underlines a solid collaborative teamwork across the French maritime industry including the involvement of local port authorities to enable the vessels’ safe operatorship, and the commitments of all the parties to support the growing role of LNG,” said Jérôme Leprince-Ringuet, Vice-President at ToatlEnergies Marine Fuels.

“TotalEnergies is delighted to successfully complete Marseille’s first LNG bunkering operation of a containership,” added Leprince-Ringuet.

“Her deployment underscores the company’s commitment to support the French port’s ambition to be an LNG bunkering hub for the
Mediterranean region,” stated the executive.

TotalEnergies has actively invested in LNG infrastructure, critical to support its shipping customers’ uptake of LNG as a marine fuel.

The company has been operating an even larger bunkering vessel, the 18,600 cubic metres capacity “Gas Agility” since November 2020 at the Dutch Port of Rotterdam.

It was at Rotterdam that the “Gas Agility” completed the first LNG bunkering operation of the “CMA CGM Jacques Saade”, the largest dual-fuel LNG-powered containership in the world.

“TotalEnergies will also commence operations of a third LNG bunker vessel to serve Singapore,” it noted.

“The company was awarded an LNG bunker supplier licence for a five-year term starting on January 1st, 2022,” it added.

In the global LNG market TotalEnergies is the world's second-largest publicly traded player and will have a global portfolio of nearly 50 million tonnes per annum from after 2025.

The Paris-based company has stakes in 10 LNG liquefaction and export plants worldwide in Angola, Australia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the US, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Russia and Qatar.

TotalEnergies Marine Fuels, the French major’s bunkering unit, has forecast that the liquefied natural gas market would expand over the next four years, reaching 10 million tonnes per annum of bunker volumes by 2025.

The TotalEnergies bunkering subsidiary came to the conclusion in a 40-page report on the maritime fuel market that offers shippping operators and owners advice on how to navigate the energy transition.

TotalEnergies Marine Fuels looks at the key drivers shaping the move to the decarbonization of shipping and timelines motivating the transition as well as required investments.

“Through our insights, knowledge and thinking, we hope to help develop a greater understanding of the key areas and considerations ship owners and operators will need to address, as they move towards tomorrow’s marine fuels landscape,” declared Jérôme Leprince-Ringuet, Vice-President Marine Fuels at TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies also forecasts the LNG bunkering market would represent 10 percent of the entire bunkering market by 2030.

The Paris-based company noted that there were about 245 LNG-powered ships currently in operation and the market is expanding, given the number of newbuild orders for LNG-powered vessel.

Bunkering assets

The report added that there were now 26 LNG bunkering vessels in operation globally and the fleet would grow to 43 units offering an aggregated capacity of between 7 MTPA to 8 MTPA by early 2024 and up to 10 MTPA by 2025.

TotalEnergies deployed its first chartered LNG bunkering vessel in 2020. The “Gas Agility” has 18,600 cubic metres capacity and offers services around the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

The French company’s bunkering business partner is the Japanese shipping line, Mitsui OSK Lines.

The sister ship, the “Gas Vitality”, will be based at the Port of Marseille-Fos on the Mediterranean to serve the Marseille-based containerships operator CMA CGM and vessels from MSC Cruises calling at the French port.

The  “Gas Vitality” was launched by the Chinese shipyard of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding at the end of April 2021.

TotalEnergies shares the use of a third bunker vessel in the Asian port of Singapore, where the company won a licence for LNG bunkering in February 2021.

The TotalEnergies bunkering licence from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore allows the supply of LNG in the Port from 2022.

French major TotalEnergies and liquefied natural gas bunkering partner Mitsui OSK Lines of Japan said their first France-based LNG re-fuelling vessel built in China has completed sea and gas trials.

French maritime storage technology company GTT has been chosen to design the fuel tanks of 12 new liquefied natural gas-powered container vessels ordered from China by the global CMA CGM shipping group based in the French port of Marseille.

French oil and gas major Total said it completed the first ship-to-containership liquefied natural gas bunkering operation in France’s waters at the Channel port of Dunkirk.

Glencore, the UK-listed commodities and mining company, has completed the takeover of the loss-making liquefied natural gas business of Danish energy company Orsted, including long-term capacity at the Dutch Gate LNG import terminal in Rotterdam.

Orsted had entered into an agreement in 2007 with the Dutch LNG terminal for the right to use 3 billion cubic metres of annual regasification capacity from 2011 to 2031.

The Danish company’s LNG business consists of the Dutch Gate capacity and five LNG purchase agreements.

The transaction was first revealed at the start of 2020 and was only now being completed.

Anglo-Swiss company Glencore is seeking to increase its LNG profile to match commodities market rivals Gunvor, Vitol and Trafigura.

The firm has growing LNG trading operations in Asia and Europe and competes globally for supply tenders.

Orsted’s other main businesses are in the wind and solar energy sectors.

The Orsted LNG business will be owned by Glencore’s oil trading division.

“We are increasingly focusing on the LNG business as a key part of our Oil division strategy and the Orsted transaction represents an important milestone in that journey,” said Glencore Oil’s head Alex Sanna.

“We see good opportunities in the market place and we are excited to continue to grow our LNG marketing portfolio,” Sanna added.

Glencore has a major position in the coal industry and it expects coal to play a continued role in the world’s energy mix, especially in Asia.

In Europe and the Americas, coal demand is declining with nations choosing to switch to natural gas.

Glencore is one of the most diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 60 commodities and has stakes in around 150 mining and metallurgical sites and oil production assets.

The French containership line, CMA CGM, has taken delivery of its third Ultra Large LNG-powered containership, named the “CMA CGM Palais Royal”, from the Chinese Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding group's Jiangnan shipyard in Shanghai.

Gasum, the Finnish state-owned LNG distribution company and regasification and liquefaction infrastructure owner in the Nordic region, has extended bunkering activities to include the Antwerp, Amsterdam and Rotterdam region, also known as the ARA area.

French energy major Total said it signed a pioneering agreement to charter its first two Very Large Crude Carrier-type oil tankers equipped with liquefied natural gas propulsion.

Siem Industries, the company run by Norwegian Kristian Siem and whose interests include shipping and offshore oil and gas engineering and services through the Subsea 7 company and Siem Offshore Inc., has attended the naming ceremony for its two LNG-powered car carriers at the Chinese Xiamen Shipbuilding yard in southeastern Fujian province.