Nakilat announces its commitment to mitigate marine pollution caused by maritime transport and to encourage the maritime transport industry to move towards using natural gas on board ships as a prime source of energy propulsion.
The shipping arm of Qatar’s Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) sector, Nakilat, announced that it has been in active participation to mitigate the marine pollution along with the International shipping community. Further, it will join the Society for Gas as Maritime Fuel’s (SGMF) efforts to encourage the use of LNG as a prime source of marine fuel.
On Wednesday, Samir Bailouni, Director, Fleet Management, Nakilat said: “International shipping community is facing a challenge to find an alternative fuel that would reduce sulphur emission from the maritime transportation. Our partnership with SGMF is part of our global responsibility.”
Adding to it he said: “Nakilat has already converted a Q-Max vessel to use LNG as an alternative to heavy fuel oil in the main engines. Discussions are progressing with our charters like Qatargas and RasGas to convert more.”
SGMF is a newly-launched NGO committed to promote safety and industry best practices in the use of gas as marine fuel. It is currently networking with more than 100 companies around the world with a role to work on how to promote gas as an alternative fuel for the shipping industry.
Speed-read:
- The impact of human activities on our environment is encouraging the maritime transport industry to move towards using natural gas on board ships as a prime source of energy for propulsion.
- By reinforcing the national and international regulations, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) with its Emission Control Areas (ECAs), supports this trend.
- The use of natural gas as a fuel is one way of complying with the increasingly strict regime governing emissions of harmful atmospheric pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur oxides (SOx) and reduces the carbon footprint of ship operations.
- IMO, through its marine pollution protocol (MARPOL), is working to reduce emissions of sulphur and particulate matter worldwide by 2020 or 2025. The timescale will depend on whether worldwide refining capacity is sufficient to allow the reduction in sulphur content in fuels from 3.5% now to 0.5%.
- MARPOL also requires reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions worldwide, but these limits depend on engine size and speed. The limits worldwide are based on Tier II limits, implemented in 2011.
Source: The Peninsula Qatar
