Maersk Now Lists Fossil LNG in Global Fuel Portfolio

Maersk until recently has only chosen methanol for its new green ships. Image Credit: Maersk

Container shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk now considers fossil LNG as part of the global fuel portfolio for its fleet of boxships.

Earlier this month the firm advertised for a global head of operations for its fuel supply arm, Maersk Energy Markets.

In the advertisement, the company set out its global fuel portfolio as comprising conventional bunkers -- VLSFO, HSFO, MGO and ULSFO -- as well as biodiesel, methanol, LNG and bio-LNG.

Maersk's support for methanol bunkering in its first green ship orders delivered a significant boost to that industry, and it combined that support with comments expressing skepticism over the potential for LNG as a bunker fuel.

Morten Bo Christiansen, then head of decarbonisation at Maersk, told Ship & Bunker in February 2021 that the firm did not want to invest in LNG-fuelled tonnage.

"It's a fossil fuel; it just doesn't solve the problem," he said.

"And if you do the analysis, it can actually be worse than burning bunker, because of the methane slip.

"Fundamentally it's another fossil fuel, and we don't want to invest in more fossil fuels."

But in August of this year, the company announced plans to add 50-60 new ships to its fleet, totalling 800,000 TEU of capacity, saying the new ships would include 'a mix of methanol and liquefied gas dual-fuel propulsion systems'.

"While green methanol is likely to become the most competitive and scalable pathway to decarbonisation in the short term, Maersk also foresees a multi-fuel future for the industry which includes liquified bio-methane," the company said in August.

There was a degree of ambiguity in August's statement that could have indicated the firm only intended to run its new gas-powered ships on bio-LNG, rather than fossil LNG as well. But with the company now listing both LNG and bio-LNG as among its portfolio of interests in the fuel space, it appears the company is planning to make fossil LNG purchases part of its future.