Using LNG as shipping fuel is a "game changer"

Emission controls in European and North American waters mean more shipowners are ordering vessels that run on cleaner LNG, but it may remain a marginal fuel in global shipping without further instruction from the UN’s International Maritime Organisation

The move to LNG as a ship’s fuel is a “game changer which cannot be ignored”, the managing director of ship management group Schulte UK, Angus Campbell, told Gastech in Singapore in October. But the important question is when will LNG become the dominant bunker fuel, according to an analysis note in March by Boston Consulting Group (BCG): “The answer is critical to planning and executing investment decisions that will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars industry-wide in the coming years.” Managing bunker costs remains crucial to competitiveness, noted BCG, as they still account for 30-40% of total ship operating costs. For more than 50 years, the world’s fleet of LNG carriers has used