Jacob Høgh Thygesen, Director, Merchant Ship Design Solutions with Wärtsilä opines that making available LNG fuel bunkers at ports is a prime necessity. According to him “LNG bunkering is no longer ‘nice to have’; it’s an imperative”!
He is quoted to have said: “If the emission control areas (ECAs) and sulphur ECAs won’t allow ships to operate on traditional fuel, the ships will have to change and When the ships change, they will need fuel and that fuel has to be delivered, which will, in turn, stimulate the economies of the countries that provide it.”
Thygesen pointed out that ports of Zhoushan and Nanjing in China are progressive. They are fully equipped and are already providing LNG bunker fuel commercially. The near future will see many more Chinese ports offering LNG to vessels. He also opined that at present, availability of LNG bunkers at international ports are insufficient.
Worldwide, only 15 ports out of 8000 actually are equipped to supply LNG bunkering services.
Source: Wartsila
