Shell delivered a record amount of LNG fuel to ships in 2024

(Bloomberg) –

Shell PLC said that last year record volumes of liquefied gas delivered to the power supply and increased the use of a fuel that has become decisive for the energy transfer.

According to Super Major, the company's deliveries reached 1.1 million tons, one of the largest LNG shipping operators.

The shipping industry spits out hundreds of millions of greenhouse gases every year into the atmosphere and is subject to increasing pressure for decarbonizing. LNG, which spends less carbon than oil derived from oil, was advertised as a key bridge fuel while switching to cleaner energy. Nevertheless, it publishes pollutants, including large amounts of methane.

“The demand for LNG ships gets the pace,” said Tom Summers, Senior Vice President for Shell LNG Marketing & Trading, on Thursday in an email. “LNG helps the ship owner to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

The company increased its long-term forecast for global LNG demand last month and declared that consumption will increase by around 60% to 2040. The number of LNG ships is expected to almost double in the next five years.

Read more: Shell increases the LNG forecast for higher demand from Asia, shipping

While the European Union has introduced rules that aim at the emissions of the ships, the global market for sea fuel is still dominated by oil. According to figures from the International Maritime Organization, the regulatory authority of the industry, LNG only made up about 6% of consumption in 2023.

According to a study last year, the amount of methane that escapes from LNG ships is higher than adopted from the IMO. A critic of the use of LNG to flower ships, the billionaire of Fortuncue Ltd., Andrew Forrest, plans instead to knock green ammonia.

According to carbon dioxide, methane is the second largest contribution to global warming. Shell aims to keep the methane intensity of its assets under 0.2% this year and to reach almost zero methane emissions by the end of the decade.

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