Tote Maritime in LNG bunkering milestone

US shipping company Tote Maritime recently completed the 100th bunkering of liquefied natural gas to its containerships in the Port of Jacksonville, Florida.

North America’s first LNG bunkering barge Clean Jacksonville completed the milestone operation on June 3, according to Tote, a Saltchuk company.

The 2,200-cbm barge has been bunkering LNG since 2018 to Tote’s two Marlin Class containerships, Isla Bella and Perla Del Caribe, which are operating between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico’s San Juan.

The barge sources fuel from the first US coastal small-scale bunkering facility Jax LNG, which is a partnership comprising of Dominion and NorthStar Midstream.

The Jax LNG facility located near Dames Point, Jacksonville has the capacity to produce about 120,000 gallons of LNG per day.

There is room to add two liquefaction trains to the facility boosting LNG production capacity to 600,000 gallons per day.

Tote and Jax LNG expect to see a growing number of LNG-fuelled vessels in Jacksonville as the maritime industry is increasingly shifting to chilled fuel to reduce emissions and comply with the new IMO standards.