Containerships completes first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering in Rotterdam

The vessel Containerships Nord bunkered around 240 tonnes of marine LNG from the Shell bunkering vessel Cardissa in a ship-to-ship operation while at berth in Rotterdam becoming the first container line in Europe to carry out a ship-to-ship LNG bunkering.

The shipping line said that in future the vessel would be to simultaneously refuel and carry out cargo operations in port. The amount of LNG bunkered would allow for a round trip between Rotterdam and St Petersburg and two transits of the Kiel Canal.

“LNG bunkering is a very safe operation and we look forward to conducting simultaneous operations with Containerships in the future,” said Tahir Faruqui, general manager, Shell Global Downstream LNG.

The 1,400 teu Containerships Nord was delivered to the company in December last year and is the first of four LNG-powered newbuildings it has on order, which will be deployed on the intra-Europe and Baltic trades.

The Finnish container line was bought by CMA CGM last year and is itself an early adopter of LNG as a marine fuel with a series of nine 22,000 teu newbuildings under construction.

Read more: Why CMA CGM ordered 'game changing' 22,000 teu LNG-powered containerships