The Week in Alt Fuels: The methanol bunker footprint

Methanol bunkering has spread across Europe, Asia and parts of North America, with more ports, physical suppliers and bunker vessels coming into the picture.

IMAGE: Bio-methanol bunkering of Hapag-Lloyd vessel in Busan. LinkedIn of Hapag-Lloyd

Several methanol bunker locations have been established in Europe. TankMatch and UniBarge are among the physical suppliers supporting deliveries in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region.

Methanol bunker operations have been reported at Gothenburg, Hamburg and Immingham. Bremerhaven and Kiel have demonstrated varying levels of readiness through early operations and trials.

Some suppliers like Repsol and Mureloil are ready to offer physical methanol deliveries at Spanish ports, including Bilbao, Mugardos and Barcelona.

A particularly broad network of ports has developed across Asia, with methanol bunker operations becoming more common.

Several ports across China have hosted methanol bunkering, including Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Dalian and Shenzhen.

Suppliers including CIMC Enric, SIPG Energy and China Marine Bunker offer ship-to-ship deliveries across Chinese ports. Activity has also extended to Hong Kong, where Sinopec and Chimbusco Pan Nation have supplied bio-methanol.

Elsewhere in Asia, methanol bunkering has been conducted at Busan and Ulsan in South Korea, and Japanese ports including Yokohama and Kinoe.

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) has issued five-year methanol bunker licences to PetroChina, Golden Island and Global Energy Trading that have been effective since January. But the MPA reported no methanol bunker sales in September, extending the streak to seven consecutive months.

The Port of Houston in the US hosted a ship-to-ship methanol bunker operation in March, with 2,000 mt of methanol delivered to Tangier Maersk.

This was preceded by a barge-to-ship operation in April 2023, when the tankers Stena Pro Marine and Stena Prosperous, owned by the Proman Stena Bulk joint venture, took a total of 2,600 mt of methanol from a Kirby barge.

The vessels behind the deliveries

The number of bunker barges and chemical tankers capable of carrying methanol and offering ship-to-ship bunkering at these ports has also grown steadily over the years.

Golden Centaurus, Golden Antares, Golden Sirius, Anna Cosulich and Vanda Pioneer are among the vessels capable of carrying out methanol bunker deliveries in Singapore.

China's supply network includes Daqing 268, Zhongran Green Energy 85and Jia Chen 17, serving different parts of the country's coastal bunker market.

European operations have involved Evidence and Chicago around the ARA region, Odyssee in northwestern Europe, Bahía Candela in Spain and Nore around Gothenburg and Skaw.

Japan's Eika Maru has supported methanol bunkering at Yokohama. In the US, the barge Kirby 29067 has delivered methanol to Tangier Maersk.

Many of these vessels also supply biofuels or conventional bunkers, so being able to deliver methanol does not mean they are always available to do so.

The next wave of ports

Many other ports are preparing for future methanol demand.

VO Chidambaranar, Mumbai and Kandla in India, Seattle, Tacoma, Long Beach and South Louisiana in the US, and Auckland in New Zealand are among the ports exploring or developing methanol bunker capabilities over the next couple of years, although their levels of progress vary considerably.

Port authorities in Dhofar in Oman, and Algeciras and Valencia in Spain, have also discussed developing methanol bunker capabilities, but have yet to announce timelines.

The overall geographical spread shows that methanol bunkering is moving towards a broader network of potential supply locations.

The next challenge is turning that geographical reach into dependable availability, so that ships can obtain methanol not simply where it has been bunkered before, but where and when they actually need it.

In other alt fuels news this week, the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA) has delivered 82,000 mtCO2-equivalent (mtCO2e) in emissions reductions in 2025 and 2026 under its first low-emission shipping tender with Hapag-Lloyd, which concluded this month.

South Korean shipping firm HMM has ordered eight 13,000 TEU LNG-capable container ships from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries and HD Hyundai Samho for delivery from 2029. The vessels will be deployed on its Far East-India-Mediterranean service, HMM said.

Danish operator Maersk Tankers plans to retrofit up to 10 very large ammonia carriers (VLACs) with ammonia dual-fuel engines, but said the final decision will “depend on securing commercial commitments from customers”.

By Konica Bhatt

Please get in touch with comments or additional info to news@engine.online