US privately-owned firm Harvey Gulf International Marine said it has begun to
operate one of its platform supply vessels exclusively on a bio-LNG blend and battery power.
New Orleans-based Harvey said in a statement that with this the vessel became the “first carbon-neutral PSV worldwide” and helps the firm toward its goal of becoming “the world’s first ESG certified oil and gas vessel operator.”
The shipowner led by Shane Guidry has five LNG-powered PSV’s, with diesel fuel as back up, and is adding battery power to all of them.
Harvey fuels these ships at its Port Fourchon facility in Lafourche Parish on the Gulf of Mexico. The facility has 270,000 gallons of LNG storage capacity in three type C tanks. Also, it can transfer 550 gallons of LNG per minute.
Carbon-neutral certificate
Besides supplying conventional LNG to its vessels, Harvey is now blending “low carbon intensity (CI) sourced biomethane from the swine and bovine industries” with locally available LNG.
Use of renewable LNG (RLNG) or bio-LNG enables clients who charter the company’s dual and tri-fueled vessels to obtain a carbon-neutral certificate for their related vessel operations, Harvey said.
Through blending at its LNG fueling terminal, Harvey says it can achieve “net zero carbon-neutral fuel burn.”
“An example would be blending local sourced LNG with a CI score of +80LNG with RLNG with a CI score of -440, the net zero blend would be at a ratio of 5.5:1,” the firm said.
“We always knew the day would come when investors and customers would demand low, or in this case, carbon-neutral, zero-emission platform supply vessels,” Guidry said.
“Harvey owns the only ones in the world operating today and the only ones that will ever be operating in the United States, unless our competitors want to build new dual-fuel LNG vessels, or tri-fueled like these at a cost of $113 million per vessel. I don’t see that happening, as you will never get a day rate from the end user that will support the 113 million construction cost,” he said.
“So, for those oil companies that really want to do all they can to reduce emissions while drilling for oil, we have boats that they can now charter to deliver the drilling rigs’ needs while burning carbon-neutral fuel,” Guidry added.