India’s first methanol bunkering pilot conducted in Kandla

A Stolt Tankers-owned vessel was bunkered with an undisclosed quantity of grey methanol in a trial shore-to-ship bunkering operation at the Port of Kandla in India.

IMAGE: Methanol bunkering trial on a Stolt Tankers-owned vessel at the Port of Kandla in Gujarat, India. Linkedin of DNV's Ajay Kumar Singh

The port authority hosted this trial in collaboration with tanker operator Stolt Tankers, tank storage firm Vopak and oil company Indian Oil. However, the companies have not disclosed the physical supplier for the operation.

Kandla port has been handling an average of around 120,000 mt/month of grey methanol as cargo “with a well-established system of methanol handling and storage including storage tanks, pipelines and jetties,” methanol expert, Gregory Dolan said.

The port authority has also recently adopted a methanol bunkering manual and standard operating guidelines, Dolan said.

Two fuel producers are also setting up green methanol production facilities at the port.

Indian conglomerate Thermax is planning a 5 mt/day bio-methanol plant and state-owned Assam Petrochemicals is planning a 150 mt/day e-methanol plant.

Project timelines have not been announced, but Dolan suggested that the product could be used for bunkering.

By Konica Bhatt

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