AET says it has completed its first LNG bunkering in the US, working in coordination with Shell to refuel the dual-fuel Aframax tanker Pacific Ruby outside Port Canaveral in Florida.
The transfer of 600 metric tons of marine LNG onto the 113,305-dwt petroleum tanker from the Shell-chartered Q-LNG 4000 bunker barge took place on October 9.
AET, a unit of Malaysia’s MISC, said in a statement it has completed the operation within three hours while the entire bunkering operations took nine hours.
Also, the company’s commercial and operations teams out of Houston managed the full process with Shell NA LNG and the crew of Pacific Ruby. The vessel is on its way from Houston to Rotterdam.
The tanker operator has invested in 11 LNG dual-fuel vessels.
These include three Aframaxes already in operation in the Atlantic but also one Aframax which will start operations in the Pacific in the fourth quarter. It also has two DPSTs operating in North and Barents Seas.
In addition, AET has another five dual-fuel VLCCs on order and expects to take deliveries of these vessels in 2022 and 2023.