Maersk Backtracks on LNG Skepticism in Large-Scale New Ship Order Plans

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

Shipping and logistics firm AP Moller-Maersk, the world's second-largest container line, has reversed its previous skeptical position on LNG as a marine fuel in its newly-announced plans for large-scale ship orders.

The firm has announced plans to add 50-60 new ships to its fleet, totalling 800,000 TEU of capacity, to replace scrapped tonnage. The new orders will not add to total capacity, which the company plans to keep at about 4.3 million TEU.

All of the new ships will be dual-fuelled. But while Maersk has previously only opted for methanol when taking on ships with alternative fuel capabilities, it will now take on ships capable of running on LNG for the first time.

The move is likely to put more momentum behind LNG, bio-LNG and synthetic LNG as alternative marine fuels, with a former opponent now coming around to these fuels.

"Maersk has elected a mix of methanol and liquefied gas dual-fuel propulsion systems," the company said in the statement.

"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."

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, 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."

To be fair, Maersk's intention may be only to run the new ships on bio-LNG, rather than fossil LNG. But that option was also a possibility in the past when the firm was steadfastly against the idea of buying gas-fuelled tonnage.

This is not the first time that the company has had a change of heart in shipping technologies.

In May 2017 Maersk announced that it would be finding means other than scrubbers to comply with the global 0.50% sulfur cap on bunker fuels from 2020, and continued to voice opposition to the emissions-cleaning systems as late as August 2018.

But by February 2020 the company was reported to be one of the largest buyers of scrubbers among container lines.