Marseille facility to commence operations in 2021
CMA CGM will use the French Mediterranean Port of Marseille for refuelling its planned gas-powered vessels, backed by a supply partnership with energy group Total.
Total will supply liquefied natural gas (LNG) and a refuelling barge to enable CMA CGM to refuel LNG-powered vessels at the Marseille-Fos hub starting in 2021, the companies said in a recent joint statement.
The initiative covers five vessels with a capacity of 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) each that will come into service from 2021 and operate between the Mediterranean and Asia.
Total will supply around 270,000 tonnes of LNG per year over 10 years at Marseille, while also providing a complementary refuelling service in Singapore, according to the statement.
LNG has been promoted as an alternative to bunker fuel oil for shipping lines facing an IMO January 2020 deadline to meet new international standards on emissions.
French-based CMA CGM, the world’s fourth-largest container shipping line, turned to LNG two years ago when it ordered the first-ever giant container vessels to be powered by gas.
These nine 23,000-TEU ships, the first of which is due to come into service next year on the Europe-Asia route, will be refuelled at Rotterdam in a similar partnership with Total.
“We’re in the process of creating an LNG market for very large ships,” asserted Farid Trad, Head of Bunkering, CMA CGM.
The refuelling arrangements at Rotterdam and Marseille would allow vessels to carry out a return journey to Asia without requiring additional refuelling stops, Trad continued.
CMA CGM expects to have 20 LNG-powered ships by 2022, including smaller vessels run by its container ships subsidiary in northern Europe.
