Houston-based Eagle LNG said it has marked a series of firsts when it fueled the car carrier Siem Aristotle, chartered by Germany’s Volkswagen, in Jacksonville, Florida.
Eagle LNG, owned by private US investment firm the Energy & Minerals Group, said in a statement it bunkered the car carrier from its Talleyrand LNG fueling station at the Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport).
This marked the first time Siem has refueled the vessel from a landside bunkering facility and the first ship that Eagle LNG refueled of that size from the bunkering facility, it said.
LNG-powered Siem Confucius and its sister ship, Siem Aristotle regularly call on Jaxport to unload new Volkswagen’s cars and SUVs.
The German giant uses both of the ships on the trans-Atlantic route, so-called America Round Tour, from Emden to Mexico.
The 199.9 meters long vessels feature 13 car decks and the capacity to carry up to 4,800 Volkswagen vehicles at a time.
They have a 12,600-kilowatt dual-fuel engine from MAN Energy Solutions and two 1,800-cbm LNG tanks, each.
Last year, Jax LNG and Tote Services completed their first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering of a foreign-flagged vessel in the Port of Jacksonville.
As part of that operation, North America’s first bunkering barge, Clean Jacksonville, bunkered the LNG-powered car carrier, Siem Confucius.