Singapore Grows LNG Bunkering
A new 50-50 Shell LNG bunkering joint venture with Singapore-based Keppel Corporation has signed up its first customers. Called FueLNG, it will supply two LNG dual-fuel tugs that are be built at the Keppel Singmarine shipyard and operate from 2018 onwards in the Port of Singapore.
The order for the tugs was announced October 5 by Singmarine's owner, Keppel Offshore & Marine, and by its Dutch client Royal Boskalis Westminster.
Boskalis said its joint ventures Keppel Smit Towage (KST) and Maju Maritime ordered the two innovative tugs, adding that the orders mark “a breakthrough for clean environmentally friendly harbour towage services in Singapore.”
Keppel O&M CEO Chow Yew Yuen added: “Together, Keppel's shipbuilding/design capabilities and LNG bunkering services [will] provide end-to-end solutions for vessel owners turning to LNG as a marine fuel in Singapore."
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore will award a grant of up to Singapore $2mn ($1.5mn)/tug under its LNG Bunkering Pilot Programme, on the basis that the owners have committed to fuel the 65-metric ton bollard pull ASD tugs solely with LNG.
Boskalis said the two tugs will be the first users of LNG as marine fuel in a pilot being run to develop Singapore into one of the world’s main LNG bunkering ports. It added that, with its large global fleet, it is “constantly on the lookout for ways to reduce emissions and innovate in terms of sustainability and looks forward to rolling this out in other LNG ports and terminals around the world.”
To bolster its LNG-related business, Keppel O&M’s subsidiary Gas Technology Development also signed a memo of understanding with Shell Eastern Petroleum to explore potential opportunities to cater to the demand of LNG in coastal areas, inland waterways and the international marine sectors.
LNG is becoming well established as a marine fuel in parts of Europe and North America but more infrastructure is needed in places like Dubai, Singapore and Australia to make it a global bunker fuel.
Keppel Offshore & Marine has secured contracts to build its first two dual-fuel diesel LNG harbour tugs using its proprietary design. This is an artist's impression of one (Photo credit: Keppel O&M)
A joint venture established 1991 between Keppel and Boskalis-owned Smit Singapore, KST merged operationally with another Keppel-Boskalis joint venture Maju Maritime in 2010. The two companies have a combined fleet of 68 tugs and provide harbor towage services in Singapore and Diego Garcia as well as in Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and China together with joint venture partners. The two new tugs will be their first to run on LNG.
Mark Smedley