The Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT) hosted the first foreign-flagged vessel to bunker liquefied natural gas (LNG) at a U.S. port.
Fure Ven, a dual-fueled vessel owned and operated by Furetank of Donsö, Sweden, last week became the first non-U.S.-flagged vessel to bunker LNG in the United States. Eagle LNG Partners became the first company to deliver LNG bunker fuel to a foreign-flagged vessel.
“This milestone paves the way for more international trading vessels to bunker at JAXPORT, marking the latest tangible demonstration of LNG as a safe and reliable fuel solution,” the Jacksonville, Florida, port authority said in a statement. “It also builds confidence in the case for LNG to help the shipping industry meet increasingly stringent environmental regulations while still generating substantial cost savings.”
JAXPORT said the 18,000-deadweight-ton Fure Ven, carrying renewable diesel cargo for Swedish petroleum and biofuels company Preem, transited the St. Johns River on Sept. 1 and called at the Talleyrand Marine Terminal, which serves Crowley Maritime Corp. Eagle LNG Partners transferred 225 metric tonnes of LNG to the Fure Ven from its on-site storage facility in less than seven hours.
LNG is a natural gas that has been cooled to a liquid at minus 260 degrees Fahrenheit. In liquid form, the volume is reduced to about 600 times that of its gaseous state, making it possible to transport and use as a transportation fuel.
The Fure Ven is part of Furetank’s V-Series, a new generation of product and chemical tankers introduced in 2018 that leverages innovative design features and LNG to deliver fuel reduction of about 40%. Furetank said the climate-smart vessels also have achieved substantial reductions in emissions — 55% less carbon dioxide, 86% less nitrogen dioxide, 99% less sulfur oxide and 99% less particulate matter — compared to vessels of the same size of earlier designs.
“These vessels have already reduced CO2 emissions beyond the [International Maritime Organization] target of a 50% reduction by 2050,” Furetank CEO Lars Höglund said.
The U.S. Coast Guard oversaw the bunkering operation, which was brokered by the GAC Group, a global provider of integrated shipping, logistics and marine services. This was the first time in its history that GAC’s bunker fuels division secured a deal to supply LNG as a marine fuel.
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