Norwegian group Yara has completed the first ship-to-ship ammonia transhipment operation in Australia, moored in a commercial port.
This is – as the Scandinavian corporation underlines in a note – a key step for the development of a global supply chain of ammonia used as marine fuel.
“This operation demonstrates that the transfer of ammonia from one vessel to another can be carried out in compliance with the highest safety standards, and in an efficient manner, in a port environment,” commented Murali Srinivasan, SVP Commercial of Yara Clean Ammonia, the marine division of the Yara Group that operates its own fleet of vessels dedicated to the transport of ammonia (until now mainly used for the production of fertilizers).
The ship-to-ship transfer took place at the Port of Dampier in Australia’s Pilbara region, with the support of the Pilbara Ports Authority and the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD), following more than 2 years of preparatory work by the parties concerned, which focused on the different aspects of ammonia bunkering, from commercial dynamics to the development of a dedicated infrastructure and the evolution of technologies.
In concrete terms, this first fuel transfer involved the transfer of 2,700 tonnes of ammonia from the Green Pioneer, a 35,000 cubic metre ammonia carrier owned by the Japanese shipowner MOL, to the Navigator Global, a 22,000 cubic metre unit owned by the Navigator Gas company, and vice versa.
“Shipping accounts for around 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and we see ammonia as a clean fuel that can help decarbonise shipping and meet the targets set by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO),” said Murali Srinivasan, SVP Commercial for Yara Clean Ammonia. “We have been producing and shipping ammonia safely for over a century. This ship-to-ship move was an essential step to enable the start-up of a port-based ammonia bunkering operation, in view of the growing demand from the maritime industry.”