BHP closes in on deal for world's first LNG-powered shipping fleet

BHP closes in on deal for world's first LNG-powered shipping fleet

As the shipping industry braces for its biggest overhaul in decades with new rules slashing sulphur levels in maritime fuel from January 1, BHP, the largest charterer of bulk carriers in the world, has revealed it is close to deciding who will win a tender to design and supply LNG-powered ships to transport up to 27 million tonnes of its iron ore exports to Asia.
BHP maritime vice-president Rashpal Bhatti said the introduction of bulk carriers running off LNG rather than diesel would eliminate NOx (nitrogen oxide) and SOx (sulphur oxide) emissions as well reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 25 per cent.

As well as shipping companies, some of Australia's major gas producers including Woodside, Shell and Pavilion were among the companies to have participated in the tender, according to Mr Bhatti.

BHP, the world's biggest miner, has welcomed the United Nations International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) new rules taking effect from next week requiring all ships to use fuel containing no more than 0.5 per cent sulphur, down from 3.5 per cent.

The IMO has also set goals to halve carbon dioxide emissions generated by shipping by 2050 compared to 2008 levels.

"Whilst there is no regulation around that in terms of carbon reduction, that's coming, there's no doubt about that," Mr Bhatti said.

"The industry has been a mono-fuel captive audience to diesel for the last 80 years and it's only now that the IMO has woken up."

Macquarie Wealth Management analysts this year estimated the shift to cleaner fuel and moves to fit vessels with new equipment to capture sulphur emissions could add between US$2-3 a tonne for freight travelling from Western Australia to China.

"In coming years, vast research and development investment will take on non-carbon- fuelled propulsion, requiring the construction of new freight infrastructure," the investment house said.

Describing global warming as an indisputable crisis requiring a global "mobilisation" effort, BHP's outgoing chief executive, Andrew Mackenzie, embarked this year on a $500 million carbon-reduction drive to cut not only BHP's own emissions but the emissions generated from beyond its mine gates – known as "scope 3" emissions – caused by shippers and the customers of its products such as Asian steel mills and power plants.

https://www.watoday.com.au/business/companies/bhp-closes-in-on-deal-for-world-s-first-lng-powered-shipping-fleet-20191229-p53nem.html


Maritime shipping transports 90 percent of the goods traded around the world by volume. Moving large amounts of goods such as oil, computers, blue jeans and wheat across oceans drives the global economy, making it cheaper and easier to buy almost anything.
But hauling goods around by sea requires roughly 300 million tons of very dirty fuel, producing nearly 3 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emissions, giving the international maritime shipping industry roughly the same carbon footprint as Germany.

https://phys.org/news/2018-12-cargo-ships-emitting-boatloads-carbon.html


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