Furetank to offset remaining emissions from Vinga vessels using carbon credits

Sweden-based shipping company Furetank has begun to offset the remaining carbon emissions from its Vinga class of vessels through the purchase of carbon credits.

As explained, the firm has already achieved a 55% reduction of CO2 emissions for its Vinga series of vessels by using an optimized ship design and liquefied biogas (LBG)/LNG propulsion. However, to reach zero-emission targets, the supply of renewable, liquid biogas is “not sufficient”, the firm noted.

Following these conclusions, Furetank has compensated all remaining emissions from the four Vinga vessels owned by Furetank for the entire year of 2021. The method used is carbon offsetting, which means purchasing a number of certified carbon credits equivalent to the CO2 emissions caused by one’s operations. Each credit corresponds to one tonne of CO2.

“I feel great about halving the emissions from the new ships, we have done everything we possibly could to limit our climate footprint. But we don’t want to settle there. To show that we are serious in our ambitions and push forward even further, we turn to climate compensation,” said Lars Höglund, CEO of Furetank.  

Furetank worked with STX Commodities, a global trading firm in environmental commodities. Suad Januzzi, sales trader at STX in Gothenburg, stated that some emissions are unavoidable for most companies today, and that climate change is a global problem. Where on the map a tonne of carbon dioxide is reduced or emitted is, in fact, irrelevant: it is the total impact that counts, according to Januzzi.

The credits are certified through Gold Standard, a climate compensation registry, approved by the WWF and other organizations. They validate and transfer funding to renewable energy projects worldwide, accelerating the global transition away from a fossil-based economy.

Furetank operates 8 Vinga class vessels and is a founding member of the Gothia Tanker Alliance, a market platform for small and intermediate product tankers.

All vessels are designed with dual-fuel capability, capable of running on LNG and have features that reduce fuel and energy consumption resulting in extensively lower emissions of CO2, sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide, and particles. This June, the company’s eight LNG-powered tanker Fure Viten departed China Merchants Jinling Shipyard in Yangzhou for its first zero-emission journey.