LNG

TotalEnergies has signed a liquefied natural gas sale and purchase agreement to supply Sembcorp Fuels, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-based Sembcorp Industries.

The deal entails the delivery of up to 800,000 tonnes of LNG for a duration of 16 years, commencing in 2027.

“The LNG will be sourced from TotalEnergies’ global portfolio. This new agreement adds to the companies’ current SPA, which runs until 2029,” the French major explained.

“By supplying this additional LNG supply to Singapore, TotalEnergies is contributing to the country’s energy security and to its decarbonization goals,” said TotalEnergies.

“This deal also reflects TotalEnergies’ commitment to supporting its customers in their transition to greater sustainability,” it added.

TotalEnergies is the world’s third-largest LNG player with a market share of around 12 percent and a global portfolio of about 50 MTPA with interests in export facilities from Africa to Australia.

Qatar deals

QatarEnergy is also a key supplier to TotalEnergies and in 2023 two long-term LNG SPAs were signed to supply of up to 3.5 MTPA of LNG from Qatar to France.

Under the Qatar agreements, LNG will be delivered ex-ship to the Fos Cavaou LNG receiving terminal located west of Marseilles.

Those deliveries are expected to start in 2026 for a term of 27 years.

TotalEnergies has gas interests in two of Qatar’s expansion joint ventures, the North Field East (NFE) and the North Field South (NFS) projects.

TotalEnergies recently reported declines in annual and quarterly net profits as commodity prices plummeted compared with the previous year while the French major sold over 44 million tonnes of LNG and opened the Le Havre floating LNG regasification terminal in France while being further boosted by progress in other oil and gas projects.

TotalEnergies posted a 35 percent drop in adjusted net operating income for all of 2023 to $25.10 billion from $38.47Bln in 2022.

For full-year 2023, hydrocarbon production for LNG was up 9 percent compared with 2022 due to increased supply to Nigeria LNG in West Africa, higher availability of Ichthys LNG in the Northern Territory of Australia and from the Hammerfest LNG plant in Norway.

Feb 22 (LNGJ) - Vitol Bunkers, the maritime fuelling unit of the global commodities firm, has taken delivery of the “Marine Future”, its first specialised bunker barge in Singapore, strengthening its position in Asia’s expanding biofuel bunker market. “The addition of this specialised IMO-type 2 notation bunker tanker to the V-Bunkers fleet will uniquely make it possible to supply biofuel blends including B24, B30 and up to B100,” said Vitol Bunkers. Biofuel sales in Singapore reached 520,000 tonnes in 2023, an increase on the previous year when volumes were 140,000 tonnes. 

   Built in China, the “Marine Future” is 102.6 metres in length and has the capacity to carry about 7,000 million tonnes of biofuels. “The current fleet of bunker tankers in Singapore are classified as ‘oil tankers’ and are therefore restricted to a maximum of 25 percent bio component in biofuel blends. This new bunker tanker has no such restriction, hence can deliver bunker fuels consisting of 100 percent bio component (B100),” the company said.

Jan 26 (LNGJ) - The Dutch Port of Rotterdam registered less bunkering for shipping in 2023 except for LNG fuel with the overall total dropping to 9.9 million tonnes in 2023 compared with 10.6MT in 2022. “The demand for fuel oil, marine gas oil and other fuels was 6.7 percent lower than in 2022. Only bunkering of LNG rose significantly from 406,599 cubic metres to 619,243 cubic metres,” the Port said. “This had everything to do with developments in the price of LNG. The demand for bunkers mixed with biofuels dropped from 790,851 tonnes to 751,638 tonnes,” the Port added.

   “The overall decline is mainly caused by fewer sea-going vessels arriving in Rotterdam and because the price of bunker oil was temporarily more favourable in Singapore,” it added. The Port Authority also noted that along with the Port of Antwerp-Brugge Authority all bunker vessels by early 2026 have to work with “officially accepted bunker measurement” systems. “With this measure, the port authorities aim to make the ARA bunker market more transparent, efficient and reliable,” they added.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore has issued the annual bunkering data from the Asian city state’s world-class shipping fuel industry listing Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services as the top bunker supplier in the hub where LNG fuel is also growing in importance and with the fuel suppliers Trafigura and Sinopec taking second and third spots.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French LNG storage technology company for shipping and onshore, has created a new smart-shipping brand from subsidiaries based in Singapore and Iceland.

The brand merger of the units is under the name Ascenz Marorka, taking the name of the Singaporean company Ascenz and the Europe-based Marorka.

GTT acquired Marorka, a smart-shipping company based in Reykjavik with services much sought by the LNG industry, in February 2020.

Marorka was bought from its owners and management team for an undisclosed sum.

The company designs maritime energy monitoring and optimization systems for vessels allowing them to reduce their environmental footprint and also provides other benefits.

The Islandic company’s systems were at the time of its acquisition by GTT installed on more than 600 vessels.

Marorka was purchased as a good technical, commercial and geographical complement to the Far East smart-shipping unit Ascenz.

Ascenz bunkering

One of the initiatives of Ascenz was to launch in 2021 the Electronic Bunker Delivery Note (eBDN) solution to improve the efficiency and transparency of the bunkering process in the Port of Singapore.

“Ascenz Marorka’s mission is to provide ship-owners and charterers around the world with the most comprehensive, innovative and reliable solutions that meet customers’ requirements, by offering a complete range of solutions, from the sensors to the modular software platform, in addition to high-value services provided by the Group’s experts,” explained GTT.

Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and Chief Executive of GTT, said he was proud to announce the launch of the Ascenz Marorka brand as part of a comprehensive digital strategy.

“With Ascenz Marorka, our ambition is to combine the digital expertise of our Group more effectively and to provide even more value to our customers in their journey for efficiency and sustainability,” explained Berterottière.

Anouar Kiassi, Vice-President Digital and Information at GTT, said that thanks to 30 combined years of experience the Ascenz Marorka brand would provide a great service to ship owners.

“The new brand will put us in a stronger position to design and distribute superior solutions to our customers and meet the evolving requirements of the maritime industry,” Kiassi stated.

The LNG and maritime fuel industry marked its largest recent consolidation deal, though relatively modest in scale, as BMS United Bunkers, Bunkernet and SBI bunkering BV said they had entered a definitive merger agreement to create a company called Baseblue to be a future industry leader in marine fuelling.

Pavilion Energy of Singapore and Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines held a ship-naming ceremony at Sembcorp Marine’s Tuas Boulevard shipyard for the 12,000 cubic metres capacity bunkering vessel “Brassavola”, the largest of its kind to be built in the Asian city state.

Sea-LNG, the UK-registered non-profit industry foundation committed to furthering the use of LNG as a cleaner and superior maritime fuel, has urged an end to the misrepresentation of the status of methane-slip risks delaying the build-out of a cleaner LNG-powered fleet.

Pavilion Energy, the Singapore natural gas and LNG company, has named Alan Heng as Group Chief Executive effective from April 2022 as the company continues to support Asian expansion in trading and bunkering activities.

Gasum, the Finnish state-owned LNG distribution company and regasification and liquefaction infrastructure owner in the Nordic region, is looking for a new Chief Executive after incumbent Johanna Lamminen resigned with immediate effect after leading the company for over seven years