US shipping and logistics company Crowley has taken delivery of a 12,000-cbm LNG bunkering barge which will serve a unit of LNG giant Shell.
Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, built the LNG bunkering barge named Progress.
Crowley claims this is the largest US Jones Act-compliant vessel of its kind.
The company and Shell NA LNG revealed this project in September 2021, and Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding started work on the 126.8 meters long vessel in January 2021.
Shell’s unit will take the barge on a long-term charter.
According to Crowley, Progress will expand access to “cleaner energy” for ship operators at the Port of Savannah, Georgia.
Progress’ technologies include capability developed by Shell and Crowley’s engineering services group to flexibly deliver LNG to various types of LNG containment systems, it said.
Shell has a worldwide LNG bunkering network, including in the US.
In January, 2021 Shell completed the first ship-to-ship bunkering operation using Q-LNG’s barge, Q-LNG 4000, in Florida.
Last year, Shell completed the first LNG bunkering operation in the Caribbean with the 18,000-cbm bunkering vessel, New Frontier 2.
Earlier this year, Shell expanded its global LNG bunkering network with the completion of its first operation in the port of Zeebrugge, Belgium.