Asia/Pacific News
Singapore Will Become Asia's Largest LNG Bunkering Hub: Total
French energy producer Total, currently one of the world's largest LNG bunker suppliers, sees Singapore becoming the top bunkering hub for gas-powered shipping in Asia.
"We believe Singapore is going to be the major hub in Asia for LNG bunkering," Frederic Meyer, strategy director for bunkering unit Total Marine Fuels Global Solutions, said at IBIA's Bunkering & Shipping in Transition conference on Tuesday.
"Let's not forget about the position today in conventional fuels."
Video recordings of the conference are publicly available on IBIA's YouTube channel.
Singapore has long been the world's largest hub for conventional bunker fuels, with annual sales close to 50 million mt in 2020, but has been slower than some ports in Europe to build up LNG bunker demand.
Rotterdam saw 210,334 m3 of LNG bunker sales last year, up from 71,555 m3 in 2019. Singapore has yet to start publishing data on its LNG bunker sales, but the numbers are likely to be significantly lower.
Singapore's authorities have been 'extremely cooperative' in helping to set up the LNG bunker supply chain there, Meyer said.
"Singapore definitely has plenty of competitive advantage in the region to grow fast this offer of LNG and other alternative fuels," he said.
"It is part of our strategy -- after Europe, Singapore was obviously the hub to be in."
Total was awarded its licence to supply LNG as a bunker fuel in Singapore in February. The term of the licence is five years from January 1, 2022.
Total will become the third supplier licenced to supply LNG bunkers there, after FueLNG and Pavilion Energy in 2016.
