TotalEnergies has become the eighth partner to join the Castor Initiative, the coalition of high-profile shipping industry players that intend to commercialise the development of the world’s first zero-emission tankers.
Jerome Cousin, senior vice president of shipping, said on Friday that the French energy major “will strive to bring its charterer perspective in this consortium of highly reputable industry players”.
“Among various decarbonised marine fuel alternatives, ammonia could rapidly become a viable solution in the maritime sector,” he said, adding that some challenges still needed to be addressed, particularly safety.
The Castor Initiative, which comprises MISC Berhad, Lloyd’s Register, Samsung Heavy Industries, MAN Energy Solutions, the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Yara Clean Ammonia and Jurong Port, was established in January 2020 with the aim of putting the world’s first ammonia-fuelled tanker in service by 2024.
The coalition’s most recent project milestone was the April 2022 memorandum of understanding for a pair of zero-emission tankers. MISC, via its tanker arm AET, will order the pair from SHI, with Lloyd’s Register participating in the design and certification.
MAN is designing the engines. Yara will provide the fuel. The MPA will develop safe operating procedures and Jurong Port will build the ammonia bunkering facilities.
The initiative said the addition of TotalEnergies increases its diverse circle of maritime expertise to ensure and support the complete ecosystem required for ammonia-fuelled tankers to operate sustainably and safely.
MISC chief executive Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam said: “We have much to do to realise this mission, but today, we reached another milestone in our journey with TotalEnergies joining this global coalition, which is a huge recognition of the whole-of-society approach principle, on which we anchor our purpose of bringing zero emissions in shipping closer to reality.”
Murali Srinivasan, Yara Clean Ammonia senior vice-president & commercial head, said TotalEnergies’ entry will accelerate the consortium’s efforts.
Clock ticking
“The clock is ticking for the decarbonisation of the maritime sector. Within the Castor Initiative, all partners in the value chain have made a significant commitment towards decarbonisation and have been collaborating actively to achieve that goal,” he added.
TotalEnergies, in its Energy Outlook 2022 issued in September, outlined what it described as “multiple decarbonisation paths” for shipping.
It said natural gas and carbon capture technology would initially play a key role, with hydrogen and sustainable liquid fuels based on e-fuels becoming “promising decarbonisation drivers” as production is brought up to scale.
