Shell explores LNG bunkering in Egypt

Oil and gas major Shell is reviewing services of bunkering ships in the Suez Canal region with liquefied natural gas (LNG), reported Egypt’s state information service.

PHOTO: A container ship passing through the Suez Canal. Getty Images

Officials from the oil major met with Walid Gamal El Din, chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, to discuss the goals of a ‘green hydrogen project’ and the Economic Zone’s plans towards this sector, the report stated. During the meeting, Shell also reviewed the possibility of supplying LNG to ships around ports in Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone caters to a huge number of ships passing through the region and this collaboration will allow Shell to supply LNG bunkers to the ships passing the Suez Canal or in the ports affiliated with the economic zone.

Shell will also restore “ship bunkering services with traditional and green fuel in the ports of East and West Port Said and Sokhna,” as a part of this project.

Separately, this green hydrogen project will also explore prospects of producing green fuel for ships in the Suez Canal region. El Din “signed 9 framework agreements with major global alliances to produce the green fuel that the region [ports around the Suez Canal] seeks to supply ships with.”

“The two sides discussed the requirements of green hydrogen projects in the integrated Sokhna region, whether a water desalination plant, a service corridor, a tank farm, as well as the liquid bulk station, serve the production, transportation, and storage of green hydrogen,” Egypt’s state information service report further stated.

Shell supplies LNG bunkers at 19 ports worldwide, by using a fleet of 12 LNG bunkering vessels.

By Aparupa Mazumder 

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