Andreas Enger on Ammonia: 'Scalable and Cost-efficient'

Andreas Enger, chief executive of Hoegh Autoliners. Image Credit / S&B.

Shipowners surveying the emerging multi-fuel bunker market can be forgiven for not wanting to take the big decisions on alternative fuels until the market's direction becomes clearer.

At present, the front runners for limiting a ship's carbon output are bi-fuel and liquefied natural gas. But some ship operators are willing to go further and back the greener and less visible options.  

One such ship operator is Andreas Enger, chief executive of shipping line Hoegh Autoliners.

"We strongly believe that ammonia is the most scalable and most cost efficient way to make a green fuel," he told Ship & Bunker on the sidelines of an ammonia fuel event held in London on March 10. 

But it's not just about belief and doing right by the environment; there is a business case to be made albeit one made in a specific context.

One of the first questions a ship operator will ask about a new bunker fuel is, where can I get it?.

Ammonia as bunker fuel is far from readily available around the world although, according to Enger, that is changing. 

"We talk to ports such as Singapore and Rotterdam, and that's already happening." 

As a liner operator, Hoegh Autoliners uses a handful bunkering locations globally and the key bunkering locations for his ships are supplying ammonia in the right time-frame.

If global supply is not as pressing for his company as it might be for others (tramp operators, for example), then what is?

Enger is optimistic about "the development path of green energy" but is not prepared to invest "a billion dollars on the conviction that the world will go fully green".

Shipping might go fully green and if it does, Enger wants his company to be in the right place to benefit from the upside. 

"We have built optionality into our investments. We have assets that can run grey [fuel from non-renewable sources] for a long time but equally they can go green when the world, the market and the regulators are ready."

A new ship has a commercial life of around 30 years. Under that time frame, a vessel built now could be operational close to the date set by the International Maritime Organization for shipping to have reached zero emissions.

"We don't want to bet against the world going green in the next 15 to 20 years," Enger said.

If shipping does go green, it will be because the pricing of zero emission shipping fuels such as ammonia will be competitive versus the more carbon-laden alternatives. 

And if that happens, Enger's ships will be ready.