MOL signs LBM supply contracts with Axpo and Titan

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has signed agreements with liquefied biomethane (LBM) suppliers, Axpo and Titan, to bunker its car carriers in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

IMAGE: Bio-LNG fuel bunkering vessel supplying the CIELO ACE. MOL

Under the deal, Axpo will supply LBM to MOL’s car carriers in the Spanish ports of Malaga and Barcelona.

Titan, now a subsidiary of Molgas, had ⁠begun supplying LBM to MOL’s vessels in March last year, and will continue to supply LBM to MOL's car carriers in Northwest Europe.

LBM can be used as a drop-in fuel in vessels that are LNG-capable and is a cleaner alternative to fossil LNG.

MOL said the LBM supplied to its car carriers will have a lifecycle (well-to-wake) carbon intensity of -15 gCO2/MJ or lesser, and it has obtained an ISCC-EU certification.

“With the same infrastructure and logistics chain, bio-LNG offers a practical pathway to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate the maritime industry's journey toward net zero,” Axpo’s head of Small Scale LNG Daniele Corti said, in a LinkedIn post.

Last December, Axpo delivered around 500 cbm (224 mt) of LBM from its LNG bunkering vessel Green Zeebrugge to a dual fuel ro-pax vessel in Italy’s Genoa.

Earlier this year, Axpo added another bunkering vessel Green Pearl, with a capacity of 7,500 cbm, for LNG and LBM bunkering along the Italian coast and across the wider western Mediterranean.

By Nachiket Tekawade

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