SEA/LNG Flags Three New Members

Sea\LNG, a trade association that promotes LNG as a marine fuel, has announced three new members, taking its total membership to 28.

Russian producer Novatek announced in mid-July that it had joined the association but Sea\LNG now says Japan's Mitsui and Sumitomo have joined.

“Each of the global organisations brings with them a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to Sea\LNG as we work to realise our goal of making LNG an important maritime fuel,” said Sea\LNG chairman Peter Keller August 1. 

Novatek has ambitious growth plans to become a major exporter of LNG within the next 10 years by tapping into Arctic gas.

Mitsui has invested in 11 LNG projects, eight of which are in production including Gazprom-led Sakhalin and Marathon-led Equatorial Guinea LNG; it is participating in an LNG bunkering pilot project in Singapore and signing an MoU with Gazprom to co-operate in LNG bunkering studies.

Sumitomo has been involved in oil bunkering for 65 years, has a US piped gas trading business, and is a partner in plans to develop a liquefaction/export project at Cove Point, Maryland.   

Established August 2016, Sea\LNG now has 28 members, including the latest three. Because of its oil company members, it proved initially slow last year to back calls for the UN International Maritime Organisation to cap sulphur in marine fuels by 2020 at 0.5% by weight – a rule enacted last October.

Sea\LNG chairman Keller, by contrast, is executive vice president of shipowner Tote, an early US adopter of LNG-fuelled ships. 

Mark Smedley