TotalEnergies and shipping giant CMA CGM Group will create a joint venture to provide LNG bunkering supply services at the port of Rotterdam, Europe’s largest, in a bid to help replace more fuel oil volumes with liquefied natural gas in shipping.
The agreement for the 50/50 joint venture is the first such deal between an energy provider and a shipping group to co-develop and jointly operate LNG bunkering facilities, the French oil and gas supermajor said on Wednesday.
“This strategic partnership reflects the shared ambition of both French companies to work jointly towards the acceleration of the energy transition in the maritime sector,” TotalEnergies noted.
As part of this new logistics joint venture, a new 20,000 cubic-meter LNG bunker vessel will be positioned in Rotterdam by the end of 2028 and jointly operated. The CMA CGM-TotalEnergies joint venture will offer a complete logistics service, from reload access at Gate terminal facilities to LNG bunker delivery to a wide range of vessels operating in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region, including those of CMA CGM as well as other shipping operators.
TotalEnergies has an established logistics infrastructure in the ARA region, where the LNG bunker vessel Gas Agility has been in operation since 2020.
In addition, TotalEnergies, the world’s third-largest LNG player, will also supply CMA CGM with up to 360,000 tons of LNG annually, from 2028 onwards and until 2040, under a long-term supply agreement.
“LNG is today the most mature and immediately available solution to reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport,” Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said in a statement.
The company says that when used as a marine fuel to replace fuel oil, LNG can reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the shipping sector by about 20%.
Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM Group, commented that the deal “is a concrete way to scale up alternative fuels and accelerate the decarbonization of global trade.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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