Jacksonville LNG bunkering plan gets USCG approval

AUGUST 22, 2017 — The U.S. Coast Guard has given the green light for TOTE Maritime to bunker its LNG fueled Marlin Class ships from the LNG bunker barge Clean Jacksonville in the Port of Jaxonville, FL.

JAX LNG, LLC reports that it has receiveda USCG Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for the operation of its waterfront LNG facility and approval to conduct ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operations with the Marlin Class ships and the Conrad Shipyard built bunker barge.

The expectation is this ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operation will commence early in 2018.

In August 2015, JAX LNG and its partner TOTE Maritime received their first LOA from the USCG establishing an industry first landside LNG bunkering facility in the Port of Jacksonville. Since then, JAX LNG has safely delivered LNG to TOTE Maritime’s LNG fueled container ships.

In addition, Pivotal LNG has demonstrated the ability to safely conduct LNG bunkering operations while TOTE Maritime simultaneously loads and off-loads cargo at the port.

“The receipt of this second LOA demonstrates our commitment to our customers, the value of inclusive port stakeholder relationships and exhibits confidence in our rigorous operational risk analysis methodology,” said Tim Hermann, president of Pivotal LNG.

JAX LNG, LLC is a joint venture between Pivotal LNG and Northstar Midstream. Expected to be operational by end of 2017, JAX LNG’s state-of-the-art waterfront LNG facility in Jacksonville will be outfitted with a marine dock and truck loading capability. Operated by Pivotal LNG, the facility’s initial daily liquefaction capacity will be 120,000 gallons of LNG per day and the facility will have 2 million gallons of storage capacity.