To help mitigate the increased need for LNG in the maritime sector, the British Columbia government is joining the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority and FortisBC to create the first ship-to-ship LNG marine bunkering service on the west coast of North America.
According to industry standards, replacing diesel fuel with LNG has the ability to cut GHG emissions by around 20%. As FortisBC’s Tilbury facility operates on clean electricity, LNG produced there could reduce GHG emissions in marine shipping by up to 26%.
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Initial findings from a study done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for FortisBC indicate that a five-year construction period for LNG bunkering infrastructure could enable the creation of a total of 14,000 full-time equivalent person years of employment over the duration of the build and contribute a cumulative $1.8 billion to provincial gross domestic product.
In addition, British Columbia is making a $25,000 contribution to the PwC study to fund environmental and social impacts analyses and a competitiveness assessment.
“We are confident in B.C.’s ability to join the global network of ports that deliver clean-burning LNG direct to the ships of the future. This will allow B.C. to have a direct impact on global emissions by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from visiting vessels,” believes Premier John Horgan, who visited the world’s largest LNG bunkering facility at the Dutch port of Rotterdam in July 2019.
Commenting on this development, Bruce Ralston, Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology, said that it is expected that LNG-fueled ships, specifically container, car carrier and cruise vessels, could start calling in Vancouver as early as 2020, and global demand is expected to surpass nine million tonnes of LNG annually by 2025.
British Columbia has been in the LNG bunkering business since 2017. Five BC Ferries vessels and two Seaspan cargo ferries are powered with LNG from FortisBC, via truck. This proposal would expand to develop ship-to-ship bunkering so that large vessels can be fueled from a fueling vessel that fills up at an on-shore jetty at Tilbury Island on the Fraser River.
