Page 7 - AsianOil Week 20 2021

AsianOil ASIA-PACIFIC AsianOil

bunkering infrastructure is more limited to date, Industry pushes back
which restricts where LNG-fuelled vessels can Those involved in the LNG bunkering industry
operate. And converting ships to run on LNG were quick to push back against the World Bank’s
comes at a cost. conclusions.
Additionally, some voices – particularly those SEA-LNG criticised the World Bank’s
advocating abandoning fossil fuels altogether – reports for attempting to “prescribe solutions
have questioned the green credentials of LNG. and predict the timing” of future technology
Indeed, the World Bank is not the first organisa- development, saying that this approach would
tion to dismiss its potential as a marine fuel in a ultimately undermine decarbonisation efforts.
decarbonising world – just the most recent and, “SEA-LNG believes strongly that the transi-
potentially, the most influential one. tion to future fuels must not follow this pre-
scriptive approach. It is far too early to decide
Limited role what the real potential of various alternatives
The World Bank’s reports were published with fuels will be for a highly complex, hard-to-
IMO targets for decarbonising the shipping abate, global industry,” the industry group said
industry in mind. Under these targets GHG in a statement.
emissions from shipping are to be reduced to at “By focusing on theoretical, unproven solu-
least 50% below 2008 levels by 2050, and to be tions, the World Bank stifles innovation in tech-
fully phased out within this century. nologies that can also provide answers in the
The World Bank acknowledged that with the decades ahead,” SEA-LNG continued. It went
use of LNG, air quality improvements are “unde- on to urge institutions and policy-makers to set
niable” compared with oil-derived bunker fuels standards and targets that drive immediate GHG
such as heavy fuel oil (HFO). emissions reductions. “To suggest that invest-
“LNG clearly emits significantly lower quan- ments not be made in the LNG sector is unwise,
tities of sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides and will prolong the use of higher-emissions
(NOx) and particulate matter (PM),” the World fuels and slow down shipping’s decarbonisation,”
Bank said, adding that the super-chilled fuel also the group added.
emits lower levels of carbon dioxide (CO2). Individual companies added their voices to
However, it continued, lower CO2 emissions the debate. Shell’s global head of shipping and
did not mean that overall lifecycle GHG emis- maritime, Grahaeme Henderson, told the Sin-
sions from LNG would be lower compared with gapore Maritime Technology Conference that
oil-derived bunker fuels. It noted, in particular, LNG is the lowest-emission fuel available at
the fact that methane was itself a highly potent scale in the shipping industry currently. He went
GHG – more so than CO2 – and asserted that on to say Shell believed that LNG must be part
methane leakage, or methane slip, can “diminish of the solution when it comes to decarbonising
or even entirely offset the theoretical GHG bene- shipping.
fit of the use of LNG”. Titan’s den Nijs and Schaap, meanwhile,
The World Bank went on to assess two scenarios highlighted the challenges and considerable
– one in which LNG plays a transitional role and costs related to adopting ammonia and hydro-
one in which it plays a temporary role. In a tran- gen as bunker fuels.
sitional scenario, infrastructure for LNG bunker- “There are a whole range of safety, environ-
ing could subsequently be repurposed for greener mental and technical issues to be addressed
fuels in the future, while in the temporary scenario, before these, or any other, alternative fuels and
LNG infrastructure is abandoned altogether once a technologies are ready for use in the marine
switch is made to zero-carbon bunker fuels. environment, let alone that marine fuels will
The viability of both scenarios was dismissed have to compete with other sectors like aviation
by the World Bank, which instead said it sees and road transport,” they stated.
a limited role for LNG as a marine fuel. It con- Like SEA-LNG, they called on the indus-
cluded that not only are the GHG mitigation try to pursue immediate reductions in carbon
benefits of LNG uncertain, but there are also emissions rather than waiting for new tech-
considerable risks if countries and businesses nologies to become viable. And Titan’s subse-
invest in LNG infrastructure to meet the IMO’s quent push to add a new bunkering barge to
climate targets. It said these risks included its fleet illustrates that they intend to lead by
unnecessary capital expenditures, stranded example on this.
assets and technology lock-in. For now, the development of new LNG bun-
As a result, the organisation recommended kering infrastructure shows no sign of slow-
that countries avoid new public policy that sup- ing. However, the debate continues to heat up,
ports LNG as a bunker fuel and reconsider exist- and the possibility of some countries taking
ing policy support. Instead, it urged them to keep the World Bank’s recommendations on board,
regulating methane emissions to put shipping making it more difficult for more LNG bunker-
on a GHG emissions trajectory aligned with the ing expansions to proceed in the future, cannot
Paris Agreement. be ruled out.™

Week 20 20•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P7