Crowley’s first LNG box ship fueled up

Crowley Maritime’s first of two Commitment Class, combination container/roll-on roll-off (ConRo) ships, El Coquí completed its first LNG bunkering operation.

Crowley partners, Eagle LNG and Clean Energy, loaded around 410,000 gallons of LNG on 41 trailers earlier the month of April.

The duo trucked the trailers from their respective LNG plants to VT Halter Marine, the Pascagoula, Mississippi, shipyard where the vessel is being constructed, so that Crowley could begin transferring the LNG into the ship’s fuel tanks.

Each trailer load took around an hour to empty into El Coquí, and the entire transfer took several days to complete, Crowley said.

Going forward, Eagle LNG Partners’ new liquefaction facility, located near Jacksonville, will exclusively support the ships’ fuel needs.

To meet these demands, Eagle LNG and Crowley constructed a dockside LNG fuel depot at the company’s leased property at the JAXPORT Talleyrand Marine Terminal.

El Coquí, together with its sister ship, Taíno will be deployed on the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico trade route.