Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) aspires to convince the Malaysian government to provide incentives in order to support the use of cleaner fuels in the maritime industry, according to vice president LNG marketing and trading, Ahmad Adly Alias.
Speaking to reporters at the Green Shipping Conference, Mr. Alias said that Singapore has already taken measures to supply such incentives, as well as financial assistance. Namely, Singapore is offering an incentive of up to S$2 million to industrial players, to change to a greener fuel.
[smlsubform prepend=”GET THE SAFETY4SEA IN YOUR INBOX!” showname=false emailtxt=”” emailholder=”Enter your email address” showsubmit=true submittxt=”Submit” jsthanks=false thankyou=”Thank you for subscribing to our mailing list”]
For this reason, he called port authorities and operators to cooperate in order to advance the utilization of cleaner fuel and facilities. This will be achieved by offering a special tariff and utilisation of LNG-fueled tugs and vehicles, according to the Green Port Policy Agenda.
With this policy, Malaysia pledges to cut its carbon emissions level by 40% until 2020.
As for Petronas, it indicated that it is ready to supply commercial LNG bunkering services by January 1, 2020, thus aligning with Malaysia’s ambition to make they country a bunkering hub.
However, according to the Malaysian Minister of Transport Anthony Loke Siew Fook, Malaysia is examining plans to enhance its bunkering sector, so as to catch up with Singapore’s performance in the similar industry.
Mr. Loke stated that Malaysia has lost out in terms of bunkering, as vessels entering the ports and passing by the Straits of Malacca, need to refuel. However, he explained that in the majority of time, all of this bunkering activities, is taking place in Singapore, thus Malaysia loses out in terms of business to.
Now, the Malaysian Government wants to establish a new ecosystem regarding supplies, regulations, and enforcement. In addition, the country will need to give confidence to the shipping lines that bunkering in Malaysia is safe as well as transparent.
Currently talks are underway, with the main problem being that Malaysia’s bunkering facilities are not big enough, and they have room for improvement.
