Pools operator Penfield Marine is seeing a rise in interest from charterers and shipowners in recent weeks following the completion of its third carbon-neutral tanker voyage.
TradeWinds spoke with Penfield management in the wake of a trial journey that saw Connecticut-based Penfield offset emissions on a panamax crude cargo from Argentina to Hawaii.
It was Penfield’s third such voyage, having completed previous runs aboard a suezmax and aframax over the past year.
The manager has now completed carbon-neutral trips for tankers in each of its three operating segments.
While Penfield has borne the cost of all three voyages, officials said it is getting closer to a point where charterers and owners may agree on a formula for sharing the burden.
“We have had over the last few weeks more incoming from charterers who are asking us to create voyages for them,” derivatives trader Mike Moisio said.
“It hasn’t come to fruition yet, but we feel like when the charterers are asking us to do this, it gives us more opportunity to have the price discussion. It makes me think there will be some cost-sharing sooner rather than later.”
Penfield chief financial officer James Knowles said the cost of such offsets can vary widely, but in general, they are lower in the current climate than at points in 2021 and that has stoked some of the interest.
“Six months ago, there was some reticence about the cost-sharing part, but now that costs are more manageable, it’s not seen as a completely exorbitant expense but as something that is more manageable,” Knowles said.
Still, Knowles said he is not sure that a single voyage in each of Penfield’s pools is enough to exit the stage in which the manager is picking up the cost.
“The activity finding its way into contracts is probably further down the line,” he said.
Penfield management has not been willing to detail the cost of credits for any of the three voyages thus far, but Knowles did say that prices have lowered with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and with recessionary fears within the macroeconomic landscape.
“Even with a variability in costs, we think the pools are a very good place to be organising the complexities and delivering on this concept to owners and charterers. We have a good centralised place to be organising a strategy,” Knowles said.
The most recent voyage saw Salamon AG’s 73,700-dwt Cape Taft (built 2008) sail from Puerto Rosales, Argentina with a crude cargo to Barber’s Point, Hawaii in May.
The offsets came from two Verra-registered projects, including the Pacajai REDD+ project, which prevents deforestation of threatened native forest in Brazil and provides cook stoves to local residents. The other involved wind power generation in Argentina.
Penfield is a pioneer among tanker pools in organising offset voyages. Chief executive Tim Brennan said he is unaware of any other tanker pool that has followed suit to date.
Pool members have been supportive of the efforts, Knowles said.
“Salomon is one of our top longstanding relationships in the panamax sector and they were very enthusiastic that we found a voyage for their ship. The dialogue is very positive on the pool members’ side,” Knowles said.
