A consortium of Japanese companies have kick-started their entry into the ship-to-ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering business by starting two joint ventures.
Japanese carrier lines Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) together with electric utility provider Chubu Electric Power and Toyota Group’s trading arm, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, have agreed to build LNG businesses after discussions that started in January 2018.
The agreements mean that K Line, Chubu Electric Power, Toyota Tsusho, and NYK Line are all stakeholders in the newly established joint ventures of ‘Central LNG Marine Fuel Japan Corporation’ and ‘Central LNG Shipping Japan Corporation’, which will commercialize the LNG bunkering in Japan’s central region of Chubu.
Learn how LNG can work for shippers and ports by reading 'Driving Innovation: LNG Support Services', a technical paper by GAC
LNG is becoming an important alternative to heavy fuel oil due to its low emission rate of air polluting substances and greenhouse gases, which will enable ships to meet increasingly stringent international regulations on emissions.
Compared to heavy fuel oil, the use of LNG can reduce emissions of sulfur oxides (SOx) and particulate matter (PM) by approximately 100%, nitrogen oxides (NOx) by as much as 80%, and carbon dioxide (CO2) by approximately 30%.
Ship-to-ship bunkering is carried out by a tanker refueling a ship by transferring its load by pipes to another vessel's tanks.
