Lauritzen Bulkers Sees Challenge Procuring Smaller Biofuel Blend Quantities

Despite these challenges, the company is willing to ramp up biofuel usage across its fleet. Image Credit: Lauritzen Bulkers

Danish shipping firm Lauritzen Bulkers has said it remains a challenge to find suppliers willing to supply smaller quantities of biofuel bunker blends.

On 9 February, a Lauritzen vessel took on a B20-VLSFO biofuel blend in Gibraltar for a voyage from Bangladesh's Chittagong to Otranto in Italy.

The biofuel stem was supplied by Peninsula via its bunker vessel Hercules Sky, with DeaL Energy facilitating the sourcing, Lauritzen Bulkers said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday.

Marine fuels firm DeaL Energy manages Lauritzen Bulkers' bunker and biofuel procurement.

The biofuel was made up of 20% fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) biocomponent and 80% VLSFO.

Lauritzen Bulkers did not disclose the quantity of biofuel bunkered, but highlighted that sometimes it gets difficult to find suppliers willing to offer smaller volumes, which can help time-chartered vessels meet the 2% FuelEU Maritime reduction target for this year.

"Finding suppliers capable of delivering 40-100 metric tons of B20-B30 fuels remains difficult, highlighting the need for further biofuel availability and infrastructure advancements," it said.

The FuelEU Maritime regulation came into effect on January 1 for all ships over 5,000 gross tonnage calling at European ports. The initial target to reduce GHG intensity compared to the 2020 baseline has been set at a modest 2% in 2025, which will be tripled to 6% by 2030 and to 80% by 2050.

Despite these challenges, the company is willing to ramp up biofuel usage in its fleet.