Shipping industry takes the LNG route to Progress
Collaboration creates inroads for liquefied natural gas in the shipping industry.
From furniture to poultry to cars, deepwater terminals support the continuous flow of goods to and from global destinations. These vital gateways can be thought of as the onramps to the freeways of the ocean.
Much like onramps and freeways, these waterway conduits have traffic as well: waterborne vessels.
And similar to on-road vehicles, waterborne vessels are increasingly evolving to reduce their carbon footprint. Alternative fuels are a viable option to help meet decarbonization goals by reducing emissions compared to conventional fuels, while complying with increasingly strict regulations of the shipping industry.
Collaboration moving the industry forward
Currently, Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the lowest-carbon fuel currently available at scale for the shipping sector.
Although LNG has an important role to play in the shipping industry’s transition to a net-zero emissions future, progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes a wide variety of entities, all working together, to make this possible.
As more ports develop LNG bunkering infrastructure and more ships are built with LNG fuel systems, the use of LNG as an alternative fuel for shipping is expected to increase.
From ports to vessels to fueling infrastructure, collaboration will move the industry forward.
Meet Progress
Crowley's engineering services division, in concert with Shell NA LNG, LLC (“Shell”) and Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, designed a 400-plus-foot-long barge which can carry 12,000 cubic meters of fuel, and is specially fitted to deliver liquefied natural gas to ships with multiple kinds of onboard LNG bunker containment systems. The name of this bunker barge, which is the largest vessel of its kind in the U.S. maritime industry, is aptly named Progress.
James C. Fowler, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Crowley ShippingThe Progress LNG bunker barge sets a new standard for quality and capability to serve the energy needs of the shipping industry.
The debut of Progress will extend reliable LNG fuel supply to provide energy to ships at the Port of Savannah, supporting the hard-to-electrify shipping industry’s transition to lower emissions, where LNG can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 23% from production to use compared with conventional fuels. The Progress will be chartered to Shell for refueling LNG vessels.
In August, the Progress completed its first bunkering operation with the 15,000 TEU Zim Mount Vinson, which had simultaneous cargo operations at the Port of Savannah, Georgia.
This maiden bunkering operation was in co-operation with Zim, a digital shipping company, who launched its new fleet of LNG-fueled containerships as part of an effort to expand its operations and address the need for decarbonization of its fleet. Zim signed a 10-year sales and purchase agreement with Shell NA LNG, LLC for the supply of LNG for its new fleet of 10 LNG dual-fuel containerships, which began operating in 2023 and 2024 between China, South Korea, the U.S. East Coast and the Caribbean.