Americas News
First LNG Bunkering of Aframax Tanker in US
Global energy producer Shell and Russian shipping firm Sovcomflot have completed the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering of an Aframax tanker in the US.
Shell bunkered Sovcomflot's tanker the Gagarin Prospect with 1,075 m3 of LNG using the Q-LNG 4000 bunkering vessel outside Canaveral in Florida on Monday, Sovcomflot said in an emailed statement on Friday.
The ship was on its way from Corpus Christi to Europe.
"This event demonstrates the rapid expansion of LNG bunkering infrastructure globally," Sovcomflot said in the statement.
"The deviation from the vessel's usual voyage route amounted to less than 150 nautical miles (0.5 days) and the bunkering time was 11 hours.
"LNG can now be supplied ship-to-ship on the principal transatlantic tanker trade routes between Europe and the US Gulf, and the US Gulf and East Coast Canada, which has seen traffic increasing rapidly as a result of the growth in WTI crude exports from the US Gulf."
Sovcomflot plans to have 42 ships operating on LNG by 2025.
