Australia all at sea

Australia is positioning itself to dominate liquefied natural gas-fuelled cargo shipping routes into Asia

Initially considered marginal compared to alternative fuels, the use of LNG for shipping is rapidly gaining traction. This is partly because of ground-breaking new vessel designs and competitively-priced LNG. But shippers also have an eye on International Maritime Organisation restrictions on sulphur content in marine fuels which will be capped at 5% from 1 January 2020. The game-changing moment came late last year when leading global shipper CMA CGM announced it would build nine large container ships with a membrane tank design by GTT powered by 300,000 tonnes a year of LNG, which would be supplied by Total. This signalled that the shipping industry was comfortable with the concept of burni