Shell Trading (US) has finalized a long-term charter agreement with Q-LNG Transport for an LNG bunker barge with the capacity to carry 4,000 cubic meters of LNG fuel.

As the first of its kind to be based in the United States, the ocean-going LNG bunker barge will supply LNG to marine customers along the southern East Coast of the US and support growing cruise line demand for LNG marine fuel.

“This investment in LNG as a marine fuel for the US will provide the shipping industry with a fuel that helps meet tougher emissions regulations from 2020,” Maarten Wetselaar, Integrated Gas and New Energies Director at Shell, said.

“Our commitment in the Americas builds on Shell’s existing LNG bunkering activities in Singapore and Europe, as well as recently announced plans in the Middle East and gives us the ability to deliver LNG as a marine fuel to customers around the world,” Wetselaar added.

The LNG bunker barge will feature an innovative transfer system enabling it to load LNG from big or small terminals. It will be owned and built by Q-LNG Transport, and operated by Harvey Gulf International Marine.

More ship owners and operators are choosing cleaner-burning LNG fuel over traditional marine fuels to respond to sulphur and nitrogen oxide emissions regulations, including the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) recent decision to implement a global 0.5% sulphur cap in 2020.