Operator Postpones LNG Bunker Plans, Chooses Scrubbers for ECA Compliance

The scrubbers will be installed mid-January, with testing scheduled for April 2015

U.S.-based Interlake Steamship Company (Interlake) has postponed its plans to use Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkers for Emissions Control Area (ECA) compliance, and instead will turn to scrubbing technology and HFO, Interlake President Mark Barker has told Ship & Bunker.

"We've always been hopeful for LNG, but we have come to the reality that it's going to take some time to develop that supply chain," said Barker.

"So we have to find a compliance solution that will allow us to operate with low cost fuel and comply with the North American ECA and Marpol Annex VI regulations."

Interlake first announced its intention to pursue LNG in May 2013, and that Shell would be its exclusive supplier of LNG Bunkers.

However in March last year the company's plan to use LNG as a fuel suffered setbacks when Shell announced it was stopping its Great Lakes project and would be reassessing its LNG strategy.

The new closed loop scrubber installations will take place aboard the M/V Hon. James L. Oberstar, a self-unloading dry bulk carrier that operates on the Great Lakes.

The scrubbers will be installed mid-January, with testing scheduled for April 2015.

In a press release Monday, Belco Technologies Corporation (Belco) announced it had been awarded the contract to install the scrubber systems.

Despite making the investment in scrubbing technologies now, Barker says the company could still switch to LNG in the future.

"We've not given up on LNG, but when the opportunity ceased to exist, we revisited scrubbers as a means of alternative compliance," Barker told Ship & Bunker.

"But LNG may still offer a longer term sustainable solution."

Earlier this week a report indicated that low bunker prices were deterring shipowners from investing in alternative methods of ECA compliance.