SEA/LNG launches map of natural gas infrastructure

The project is designed to increase the number of vessels using LNG as a marine fuel through increased awareness of infrastructure.

Developed by the industry group SEA/LNG, the tool displays major shipping routes, oil bunkering ports and major LNG infrastructure globally. Information about individual facilities and vessels is also indexed, along with ships and infrastructure that is under construction but have not yet been completed.

The map is intended to give a better picture of how LNG infrastructure relates to current maritime routes, practices and fossil fuel operations. The association also hopes that it will help bridge what it calls the ‘last mile’ between bulk LNG facilities and ships.

Peter Keller, SEALNG chairman and executive vice president, said in a press release: “A key barrier [to LNG in maritime transport] has been a general lack of understanding of current and forthcoming LNG bunkering infrastructure. What we sought to achieve with the Bunker Navigator Tool is a quick, easy-to-access platform that includes relevant, up-to-date, and free-to-access information on LNG infrastructure and bunker development.”

The LNG association is pushing for wide-spread adoption of the fuel as a way to comply with the International Maritime Organization’s 0.5% sulphur limit on marine fuel, which will enter force 1 January 2020.