A flurry of recent deals centered on Europe’s Benelux coastline has highlighted the growing development of LNG as a shipping fuel. Ports have cooperated to produce new regulation to accommodate LNG bunkering, and this is being followed up with infrastructure investments by terminal operators as demand for LNG as a shipping fuel accelerates. The main driver behind the surge in activity is the new regulation on sulfur emissions enforced from 2015 in designated Emission Control Areas in Europe, North America and the US Caribbean Sea. The International Maritime Organization has set standards to lower sulfur content maximums in these areas from 1% to 0.1% from January 2015. In Europe, the stricter limit from 2015 will apply to an ECA which stretches eastwards from the north-west tip of France into the North and Baltic seas of northern Europe.
展开▼
