The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA Singapore) announced that the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos, and Port of Vancouver joined the international LNG bunkering port focus group. With this expansion, the network will comprise a total of eleven ports and maritime administrations across Asia, Europe and North America.
The inclusion of Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan was formalised on July 10, through a signing ceremony held at the sideline of the 3rd Port Authorities’ Roundtable (PAR), organised by the Ningbo Municipal Port Administration Bureau.
The focus group was first formed in 2014 by Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Antwerp Port Authority, Port of Rotterdam and Port of Zeebrugge. The target of the group is to strengthen the network of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunker-ready ports and to bolster efforts towards enabling the uptake of LNG as marine fuel.
Through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Singapore on 5 October 2016, all members of the focus group committed to working together to deepen cooperation and information sharing in relation to LNG bunkering, to develop a network of LNG bunker-ready ports across the East and West and Trans-Pacific trade. The first meeting was held in April 2017 in Yokohama, Japan, where the focus group agreed to focus collaborative efforts on enabling the uptake of LNG as bunkers globally.
Mr Andrew Tan, Chief Executive of MPA said: “We are pleased that at this meeting, three more ports, including the first Chinese port, will be joining the LNG Bunkering Port Focus Group. We welcome Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, Port of Marseille Fos and Port of Vancouver to the network and look forward to working with them. We are confident that the inclusion of Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan will add further impetus to enable the uptake of LNG bunkering for the Far East-Europe and Intra-Asia trade routes for the future.”
