Distribution Infrastructure News

New insights from DNV’s Maritime Forecast to 2050 indicate that the number of alternative-fuel-capable vessels in operation is set to almost double by 2028.By 2030, the alternative-fuelled fleet will be able to burn up to 50 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) of low-greenhouse gas (GHG) fuels annually, double the estimated volume needed to meet the IMO 2030 emissions target.Yet today, actual consumption of low-GHG fuels remains at just 1 Mtoe.The widening gap between capacity…

TotalEnergies and the Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Limited (GSPC), a state-owned oil and gas company, announced the signing of a long-term Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) for a term of ten years starting in 2026.Under this agreement, TotalEnergies will supply GSPC with 400,000 tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG), amounting to six cargoes per year.The LNG, sourced from TotalEnergies' global portfolio and delivered to terminals on India's west coast, will primarily serve GSPC's industrial customers.

Provaris Energy and Norwegian Hydrogen AS have announced a new agreement to jointly progress the identification and development of several sites in the Nordic region for the large-scale production and export of hydrogen to European markets.The projects will utilize locally available renewable energy to produce hydrogen for shipment to European ports. This will assist energy-intensive industries in making an impact on their decarbonization plans and target a scale and level of…

Neste is partnering with PTL Marine to provide Neste MY Renewable Diesel to the marine sector across the State of California.California’s Commercial Harbor Craft (CHC) regulation, established by the California Air Resources Board (CARB), took effect on January 1, 2023. This regulation requires commercial harbor craft vessels in the state to use renewable diesel (also known locally as R99 or R100) instead of ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD), to limit emissions such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides for vessels operating in the state’s ports and near the coast.

Energy ecosystems are evolving as the value of offshore power-to-X production is being realized.Flexible and delivered in long lengths on reels in a fast-track operation, thermoplastic composite pipeline can transfer up to nine times the amount of energy as a cable and can be used to store hydrogen, increasing the uptime of offshore wind farm generated power.That’s according to Netherlands based supplier Strohm, member of the Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe (HOPE) project and the Dutch floating green hydrogen and ammonia OFFSET project.

Rarely does a vessel come along with the potential to radically change the way an industry operates, but one such vessel is set to hit the water in 2023.This new vessel, a towboat named Hydrogen One, is being developed by Louisiana-based Maritime Partners, the largest lessor of marine equipment in the U.S. It will be the first of its kind globally to run on emissions-reducing methanol-to-hydrogen generator technology—no diesel propulsion on board—as the maritime industry continues…

Naval architects and marine engineers sit on the front lines of the maritime industry’s battle toward decarbonization. Morgan Fanberg, President, Glosten, discusses the challenges and opportunities ahead.Put in context the challenge ahead for ship owners and ship designers to meet emission targets of 2050?I started my career in 1998 and as a young marine engineer, the challenges that I faced were taking old boats and meeting SOLAS requirements, developing ship yard packages for modifications such as oily water separator upgrades (for example).

Q-LNG Transport and Shell Trading (US) Company announced Wednesday that the first offshore liquified natural gas (LNG) bunkering articulated tug and barge (ATB) in the United States, the Q-LNG 4000 is ready for operations along the southeast U.S. coast.Built by Halter Marine in Pascagoula, Miss., the ATB is designed to provide ship-to-ship transfers of LNG to vessels utilizing LNG and ship-to-shore transfers to small scale marine distribution infrastructure.“Shell has an ambition to be a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 or sooner…

Carnival Corporation's Costa Cruises brand said its liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered flagship Costa Smeralda has become he first vessel to bunker LNG in Italy.Carried out in the port of La Spezia and completed at 6 p.m. on Sunday, the operation was supported by the Italian Coast Guard, Port Authority of Eastern Ligurian Sea, local authorities and Shell, which is the LNG supplier partner for Costa Group and its parent company, Carnival Corporation.The operation took place with the ship berthed at Molo Garibaldi pier…

VT Halter Marine, Inc., a ST Engineering North America company, held a vessel naming ceremony for America’s first offshore Liquefied Natural Gas Articulated Tug and Barge (LNG ATB) unit.The Q-LNG 4000 (barge) and the Q-Ocean Services (tug) were officially named in a ceremony that included U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, along with Shane Guidry, CEO of Q-LNG, and Tom Vecchiolla, President and CEO of ST Engineering North America.Over the last four years…

India and Russia have agreed on a five-year roadmap to step up cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector, including investment, not only in exploration and production in each other's oil and gas fields but also in downstream projects.India invited Russian companies to invest in its oil refining and petrochemical projects as the two nations vowed to increase energy cooperation going beyond LNG supplies and stakes in Russian oil and gas fields.According to a joint statement issued after India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's annual bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Vladivostok, Indian state-owned firms, which already have stakes in four sets of oil and gas fields in Russia…

The energy demand would continue to grow driven by emerging economies and the projected growth in global population, which will touch nine billion by 2040.LNG demand is expected to increase at an average four per cent annually to reach more than 600 million tonnes in 2035 versus 290 million tonnes in 2017, said Qatargas CEO, Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani.Khalid said, “Natural gas remains the fastest growing fossil fuel globally, benefiting from its flexibility, competitive economics, and low emissions profile. Thus, natural gas is called to play a major role in the energy transition, supported by the industrialisation and power demand particularly in emerging countries in Asia and Africa…

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today unveiled a series of initiatives aiming to spur 100,000 high-paying jobs over the coming decade across a number of sectors, including the City's maritime and intermodal freight and logistics industries. As part of the New York Works plan, the city will implement a multipronged strategy called Freight NYC that seeks to create 4,000 freight network industrial jobs by building more shipping and distribution infrastructure to connect NYC to the nation’s Marine Highway.

European Autumn Gas Conference, The Hague: Greater use of LNG as fuel would reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases, but barriers remain to its widespread adoption. One challenge is the varying compositions of LNG fuel globally, which can lead to engine damage and failure. DNV GL has now addressed this by developing a new online PKI Methane Number Calculator1 to match fuel quality with an engine’s requirements, and which can also support the development of an international standard. The PKI Methane Number Calculator can be applied to a wide range of engine types and used across the entire supply chain by engine manufacturers, ship and truck owners, traders, as well as international policy makers on LNG.

Harvey Gulf International Marine (HGIM) announced it has received both ABS (American Bureau of Shipping) class functional approval and USCG (United States Coast Guard) design bases approval on a 4,000 cubic meter LNG articulating tug barge (ATB) construction drawing package; the design accounts for ship-to-ship transfer and shore side resupply transfers. Working closely with its design partner Waller Marine, and in conjunction with ABS and USCG HGIM has developed the design package…

Magellan Midstream and LBC Tank Terminals are actively looking to develop crude export capacity at their joint venture in Houston, Texas, Magellan chief executive Mike Mears said on Friday at the Argus America Crude Summit in Houston.   The 50:50 joint venture, Seabrook Logistics, will not formally announce a project until it has customer commitments, Mears said.   The companies are currently building out crude storage and distribution infrastructure near LBC's already existing terminal in Seabrook, Texas.   (Reporting by Liz Hampton)

Hanjin Group opened its creative economy innovation center in Incheon on Wednesday, hoping to develop the city into a distribution hub of Northeast Asia utilizing advanced shipping technologies. As part of the center, Hanjin created a fund worth 159 billion won ($138 million), with about 94 billion won to be used for loans to companies starting smart distribution businesses. President Park Geun-hye, Hanjin Group Chairman and CEO Cho Yang-ho and Incheon Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok attended the opening ceremony, held at the center’s location in Songdo, Incheon. “The government hopes the center will successfully combine Incheon’s excellent distribution…

Rolls-Royce has signed a collaboration agreement with Spanish energy company Gas Natural Fenosa to develop and install a pure-gas Bergen engine aboard the Baleària-operated ferry Abel Matutes. According to Rolls-Royce , the contract gives the company its first reference for a pure-gas engine installation on a European-flagged ferry operating outside of Norwegian waters. The 29,670 metric ton ROPAX ferry, delivered in 2010 from the Hijos de J Barreras shipyard in Vigo, Spain, will use an LNG-fuelled Rolls-Royce Bergen C26:33 L6 AG auxiliary engine to generate 1…

January 1, 2015 is an important date for ship owner and operators to ensure that their vessels, when operating inside ECA zones, are doing so in compliance with strict new emission edicts concerning the emission of sulfur. – to discuss some of the technical and logistical matters you must consider. The move to low sulfur fuels is well recorded, but from your point of view, describe the situation that ship owners face regarding fuel selection and cylinder lubrication come January 1, 2015?

The development of gas transmission and distribution infrastructure of Kyrgyzstan was discussed during a meeting held at the Gazprom headquarters hosted today between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Company's Management Committee and Djoomart Otorbaev, Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic. It was pointed out that the relevant facilities in the Republic were well rundown. In this regard, Gazprom is working out the General Gas Supply and Gasification Scheme of Kyrgyzstan until 2030. The document envisages large-scale reconstruction and upgrade of gas transmission, underground gas storage and distribution facilities. The meeting participants…

ABB has designed, manufactured, installed and commissioned a 1,200-kilovolt (kV) circuit breaker the highest AC voltage level in the world. Once the 1200 kV ultrahigh-voltage switchgear is fully operational, it will have a switching capacity of 10,400 megawatts -  a switch capable of turning ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ the electricity generated by 10 large power plants or the combined average annual electrical load of Switzerland and Denmark, within milliseconds. The circuit breaker is deployed at the 1,200 kV national test station constructed by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), India’s central transmission utility, at Bina in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Reuters - Finnish gas company Gasum is to acquire 51 percent of Norwegian Skangass's distribution operations from Lyse Corporation as it seeks to improve the efficiency of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) network. Gasum said on Monday that the deal, which will make it the largest Nordic operator in the LNG market, is also intended to ensure that it benefits from tighter European Union emissions regulations. Various new regulations on sulphur emissions in the shipping sector will come into place for much of the North and Baltic Sea as well as the United States and Canada in 2015, which has driven interest in alternative fuels to diesel.

Houston-based LNG fuel supply and distribution company LNG America LLC announced today that it has contracted Jensen Maritime, Crowley Maritime Corp.'s Seattle-based naval architecture and marine engineering company, to design the initial bunker/shuttle barge for its U.S. Gulf Coast operations. Currently no LNG bunkering barges are in operation in American waterways, and these vessels will be among the first to be developed and built, marking a significant step in LNG America’s build-out of LNG bunkering infrastructure along the U.S.