Shell’s LNG bunkering volumes jump in 2024

“This was achieved with 1000 bunkering operations across 26 bunkering locations in 12 countries, by 12 bunker barges,” Dexter Belmar, Shell’s head of global downstream LNG said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday.

Shell worked with Carnival, CMA CGM, Eastern Pacific Shipping, K Line, Northern Lights JV, Seaboard Marine, ZIM, and others on the LNG bunkering operations.

Belmar also said that Shell has started delivering “mass balanced bio-LNG” to customers in 2024.

Shell’s newest LNG outlook shows that a growing order book of LNG-powered vessels will see demand from this market rise to more than 16 million tonnes a year by 2030, up 60 percent from the previous forecast.

“LNG is becoming a cost-effective fuel for shipping and road transport, bringing down emissions today and offering pathways to incorporate lower-carbon sources such as bio-LNG or synthetic LNG,” Shell said.

DNV’s data recently showed that orders for LNG-powered vessels jumped 103 percent to 264 ships last year.

The orders for 264 LNG-powered ships compare to 130 LNG-powered vessels in 2023 and 222 LNG-powered vessels in 2022.

These statistics do not include dual-fuel LNG carriers or smaller inland vessels.

Moreover, the number of LNG bunkering vessels in operation grew from 52 to 64 over the last year.

Last month, DNV added 33 LNG-powered ships, all container vessels, to its Alternative Fuels Insight platform.

The classification society also said that eight orders were placed for LNG bunkering vessels in February, representing a 50 percent expansion of the LNG bunkering vessel orderbook.