The Clean Canaveral providing cool-down services and bunkering LNG to the Eagle Brasilia. Photo via Business Wire
(Bloomberg) —
Shell Plc said it delivered record volumes of liquefied natural gas to power ships last year, boosting the use of a fuel that’s become crucial to the energy transition.
The company’s deliveries reached 1.1 million tons, according to the supermajor, which is one of the largest LNG shipping operators.
The shipping industry spews hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere each year and is under mounting pressure to decarbonize. LNG, emitting less carbon than oil-derived ship propellant, has been touted as a key bridge fuel during the switch to cleaner energy. Yet it still releases pollutants, including large amounts of methane.
“Demand for LNG-fueled vessels is picking up pace,” Tom Summers, senior vice president for Shell LNG Marketing & Trading, said in an email on Thursday. “LNG helps ship owners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
The company last month raised its long-term forecast for global LNG demand, saying consumption will surge by about 60% into 2040. It expects the number of LNG-powered vessels to almost double in the next five years.
Read More: Shell Raises LNG Forecast on Higher Demand From Asia, Shipping
While the European Union has introduced rules that target ships’ emissions, the global marine fuel market is still dominated by oil. LNG only accounted for about 6% of consumption in 2023, according to figures from the International Maritime Organization, the industry’s regulator.
The amount of methane escaping from LNG-fueled ships is higher than assumed by the IMO, according to a study last year by environmental researchers. One critic of the use of LNG to power vessels, Fortescue Ltd.’s billionaire Chairman Andrew Forrest, has plans to tap green ammonia instead.
Methane is the second-largest contributor to global warming, after carbon dioxide. Shell aims to keep the methane intensity of its operated assets below 0.2% this year and achieve near-zero methane emissions by the end of the decade.
© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.
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