Vitol commissions four battery-hybrid bunker tankers for use in Singapore

Energy supplier Vitol has partnered with Shift Clean Energy and vessel designer Sea Tech to develop battery-hybrid bunker tankers to be operated by Vitol's bunkering unit, V-Bunkers, in Singapore.

PHOTO: A bunkering vessel at sea. V-Bunkers

The bunker tankers will each be fitted with 480 kiloWatt hour liquid cooled energy storage systems and battery management systems developed by clean energy firm Shift.

These systems are expected to cut fuel consumption by saving energy during low consumption periods, and release energy when the tankers' engine usage peaks, Shift says.

“The new hybrid bunker tankers are tailored and optimised for their operating profile to reduce the GHG emission by about 10% without significantly increasing the capital expenditures,” says Prabjot Chopra, vice president of technology at SeaTech.

The firms have not given a timeline for the delivery and commissioning of the four hybrid bunker tankers.