London — Peninsula is working on building a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering business to help shippers reduce emissions while renewable fuels are still being developed, its CEO told Reuters.
The shipping industry – which accounts for nearly 3% of global carbon dioxide emissions – is under pressure to use low-carbon fuels to cut emissions. Peninsula says LNG is the most readily-available transitional fuel to reduce carbon emissions between now and 2030.
“Our aspirations are to develop a global LNG bunker offering to mirror our conventional fuel business,” Peninsula Chief Executive John A. Bassadone said in an interview.
Bunkering is the process of transferring fuel to a ship and Peninsula supplies fuels to ports in Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. Its shipping operation was spun off into a separate company, Hercules Tanker Management, earlier this year.
Hercules has already ordered a second new-build LNG bunkering vessel for Peninsula, for delivery in 2027, with an option for another. Its first LNG bunker vessel – Levante LNG – was deployed in Gibraltar last year.
“There’s been quite a lot of uptake. The ship is pretty much running flat out,” Bassadone said, adding that Hercules is in “growth mode”, which requires a strategic approach amid high prices for vessel acquisitions.
Vessel prices have surged since 2022 because of burgeoning demand for second-hand tankers from the so-called shadow fleet, as new companies procure vessels to transport sanctioned oil.
“We are still buying ships which are strategic and good acquisitions,” Bassadone said.
Peninsula is also working on two to three more new projects in the Middle East, Bassadone said, after launching operations in Abu Dhabi and Jebel-Ali last month. He did not disclose specifics, but said they spanned different business segments.
Middle East tensions are not impacting Peninsula’s strategy, as its operations in the region are easily “collapsible” in the event of a serious escalation in the conflict, he said.
Vessel diversions away from the Red Sea in the wake of Houthi attacks have had little impact on Middle East operations, but have boosted demand at Port Louis, Mauritius, and Spain’s Canary Islands, he added.
Reporting by Robert Harvey and Ahmad Ghaddar in London, Editing by Alex Lawler, Nina Chestney and Alexander Smith – Reuters
