Ship refuelling plan in the works

Barbados is in the final planning stages of creating a liquefied natural gas (LNG) refuelling framework for ships utilising the island’s main seaport.

This word comes from CEO of the Barbados National Oil Company Limited (BNOCL), James Browne, who spoke during Monday’s debate on the 2023/2024 Estimates of Expenditure and Revenue.

Responding to queries from Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for coordinating infrastructural projects, Dr. William Duguid, regarding the possibility of such a facility here, Browne revealed that the island had already been in talks with Carnival Cruises over the past few months on a number of areas including the refuelling of their newest LNG-powered ship, Arvia and future vessels.

“We have had several discussions over the last couple months with Carnival with regards to how they are going to address the greening of their facilities as well. We spoke about liquid fuels as well and earlier this year, Carnival approached us and asked the question about LNG. We have been providing LNG in the form of ISO containers since 2015 and we were the first country in the western hemisphere to facilitate the regasification facility.

“This [LNG refuelling] would be the first activity of sorts in the western hemisphere. Carnival did give us a short period of time and the team at BNOCL in conjunction with NPC are well-experienced in this space. We have to ramp up in a quick time-frame, but we believe that we should be able to facilitate the fueling of ships.”

Though Browne admitted that the logistics and long-term costs of the process were still being worked on, the BNOCL is committed to seeing the plan come to light.

“The term objective is being reviewed and analysed, but [in] the short-term, over the next couple of weeks, we would like to be the first country in this space to have truck-to-ship refuelling of LNG.” (SB)