South Korea will support a business building an LNG bunkering ship with 15 billion won (US$12.4 million). The country plans to financially support the business building the bunkering ship by covering about 30% of the total cost.
A ship-to-ship bunkering vessel is capable of directly supplying LNG-powered ships on the ocean.
According to Yonhap, the ship, to be completed by 2022, will have a capacity of around 7,500 cubic meters of LNG, which far exceeds the average of 30 cubic meters of LNG carried by a truck.
South Korea currently uses the truck-to-ship transfer method of LNG but increasing demand for the clean energy source in the maritime industry has made it necessary to build a bunkering ship, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The move also comes as the IMO recently started implementing tougher environmental guidelines for the maritime industry, inducing ships to use clean fuel, such as low-sulphur fuel oil, marine gas oil and LNG.
