Global shipping and sustainable energy logistics leader Crowley is proceeding with plans to pro-vide liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering services on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, under the first permit issued by the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) for the provision of such services.
Crowley’s advanced energy group will operate the innovative service to manage the ship-to-ship LNG transfer services. With a potential start date in 2024, Crowley is preparing to provide bunkering and related port solutions to safely deliver lower emission LNG to vessels for fuel and cryogenic tank cool down services at the canal.
“LNG is widely accepted as the most practical transitional alternative fuel for maritime shipping and to stay ahead of the rapid deployment of LNG-powered ships across the global market, Crowley is strategically growing its LNG bunkering operations across North and Central America,” said James Fowler, senior vice president and general manager, Crowley Shipping. “The Panama Canal will become a key location for vessels to take on LNG, and Crowley’s future Panamanian bunkering service will give international ship owners confidence to continue to adopt LNG across their fleets.”
Crowley has served Central America including Panama for more than 60 years with maritime and logistics services. In 2014, Crowley received the first small-scale LNG export license from the U.S. Department of Energy for LNG transportation from the U.S. into Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Non-Free Trade (NFTA) countries.
The company then pioneered small scale LNG transportation and engineering to Puerto Rico. Crowley’s services expanded in 2022 with the opening of an LNG truck-loading terminal in Peñuelas, Puerto Rico. A 12,000 m3 (3.17 million gallons) LNG bunker barge, the largest in the U.S., is under construction with a long-term charter agreement with Shell to begin service in 2024 for ships on the U.S. East Coast.
Crowley is a privately held, U.S.-owned and -operated maritime, energy and logistics solutions company serving commercial and government sectors with $3.4 billion in annual revenues, over 170 vessels mostly in the Jones Act fleet and approximately 7,000 employees around the world – employing more U.S. mariners than any other company. The Crowley enterprise has invested more than $3.2 billion in maritime transport, which is the backbone of global trade and the global economy.
Reprinted from Marine Construction Magazine Issue VI, 2023.
