Seapath and Pilot LNG JV to develop first devoted LNG bunkering facility in US Gulf Coast

With operations starting in mid-2026, the development of the brand new facility will present gas for LNG-powered vessels. With an preliminary funding of roughly US$150 million, Pilot and Seapath’s LNG bunkering facility will use their mixed experience to serve the wants of a significant international and US commerce hall. In accordance with the Better Houston Partnership, the Better Houston waterways generated over US$906 billion in financial worth to the US in 2022. The Better Houston space was named the highest US port by tonnage in a 2023 report by the U.S. Division of Transportation.

Led by LNG trade veterans with intensive expertise on the terminal and marine aspect, Pilot goals to ship LNG to new and present markets throughout the US, together with gas/bunkering terminals and associated infrastructure. That is the primary in a collection of deliberate strategic investments by Seapath and Pilot to create a community of LNG amenities in areas of unmet want within the US.

“Seapath is devoted to investing throughout the marine infrastructure area and can present robust monetary backing to Pilot’s LNG bunker tasks,” stated Jonathan Cook dinner, CEO of Pilot. “We sit up for working with Seapath in delivering this facility in a well timed method based mostly on the intensive improvement work already accomplished. This mission will meet the numerous wants for LNG gas, which additionally helps ongoing decarbonisation throughout the marine trade.”

A US firm led by Service provider Mariners and former service members, Seapath was shaped responding to the necessity for important investments within the US maritime economic system. Whereas LNG bunkering infrastructure has been growing abroad, US infrastructure supporting its uptake has been slower. Along with this facility, the corporate plans to speculate strategically in modern tasks inside maritime industrial amenities and U.S. Jones Act vessels.

“The infrastructure below improvement will present LNG to a rising market in search of cleaner marine gas, significantly as prospects search for economical methods to adjust to tightening emissions rules, together with rules set by the IMO in 2020,” added Seapath CEO, Greg Otto. “We’re happy to be working with a first-class staff in Pilot and with a number of the main ports within the US to convey this important LNG bunkering infrastructure to the Gulf Coast area the place there’s excessive demand for it. Due to our useful partnership with Pilot, we sit up for growing extra of those much-needed amenities in ports throughout the US.”

Because the United Nations Worldwide Maritime Group (IMO) has superior its international technique for maritime decarbonisation, LNG has emerged as a cleaner, extra environmentally pleasant various to conventional marine fuels. It has the potential to considerably cut back vessel emissions, together with reducing nitrogen oxide emissions by 80 – 90% and decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions by 25% over heavy gas oil. LNG’s distinctive bodily and chemical properties, together with its incapability to ignite in liquid type, make it a safer various to conventional marine fuels. In accordance with Clarkson Analysis, various fuel-powered vessels had been roughly 60% of all new vessels ordered since 2022. Of those orders, roughly 80% are vessels powered by LNG, together with by main cruise traces and operators of container vessels.

Seapath is certainly one of three maritime subsidiaries of Libra Group, a privately owned enterprise group whose subsidiaries personal and function belongings in almost 60 nations with six enterprise sectors, together with maritime and renewable vitality. Libra’s different maritime holdings embrace Lomar Delivery, a worldwide transport firm with a fleet of greater than 40 vessels, and Americraft Marine, which owns and operates a Jones Act Shipyard in Palatka, Florida that constructs crew switch vessels to service the rising offshore-wind trade and conventional inland-marine belongings corresponding to tugboats and barges.

“Libra Group is dedicated to advancing innovation throughout our sectors, from maritime, to aerospace, to renewable vitality and extra. As a worldwide organisation, we’ll harness insights from throughout our community to bolster the uptake of extra sustainable applied sciences to advance our sectors whereas figuring out potential purposes throughout our different sectors,” commented Manos Kouligkas, CEO of Libra Group. “Adoption of extra sustainable fuels is important to future-proofing our industries in opposition to a quickly altering ecosystem. We are going to proceed to help the transition to greener vitality options, and we sit up for following Seapath’s work to evolve the US maritime industrial sector.”

Pilot and Seapath plan to proceed their ongoing FEED improvement for his or her tasks in 3Q24 and 4Q23 to file purposes with the mandatory federal and state companies to allow, website, assemble, and function the small scale LNG terminal for marine gas. Pilot and Seapath anticipate saying the ultimate funding resolution (FID) particulars of their mission by 2H24.

Learn the article on-line at: https://www.lngindustry.com/small-scale-lng/29092023/seapath-and-pilot-lng-jv-to-develop-first-dedicated-lng-bunkering-facility-in-us-gulf-coast/