GLOBAL liquefied natural gas bunker demand nearly rose by 20% on the year in 2023 owing to the burgeoning fleets of LNG carriers and LNG dual-fuel ships.

The rise in LNG bunkering is even more apparent excluding demand from LNG and natural gas carriers, as most such vessels bunker with boil-off gas.

LNG bunker demand from vessel segments excluding LNG and natural gas carriers nearly doubled to 1.28m tonnes in 2023, up from 693,000 tonnes in 2022, according to the International Maritime Organization.

The main driver was containership demand, because boxships consumed 469,000 tonnes of LNG in 2023, compared with 313,000 tonnes in 2022.

Containerships were the only segment that posted sharply higher LNG bunker demand in the past two years, in line with the quickly rising number of dual-fuel boxships during that period.

There were only 14 dual-fuel LNG containerships at the beginning of 2021, then doubling to 28 a year later and reaching 43 by 2023, according to class society DNV’s Alternative Fuels Insight database that now shows 103 such vessels in operation.

Other segments experienced fluctuation in LNG bunker demand over the last two years, as vessels such as bulk carriers were more responsive to changes in marine fuel prices with LNG values surging in 2022 because of the Russian incursion into Ukraine.

Dry bulk segment’s LNG consumption rose by more than five-fold in the past year to 66,000 tonnes, after dropping to 12,310 in 2022, from 37,000 tonnes a year earlier.

The dual-fuel bulker fleet expanded the most in 2023, as the number of such vessels reached 42 then, up from just 10 in 2021, according to DNV’s database that now shows 57 LNG-powered bulkers in operation.

Tankers, cruiseships and ropax vessels made up most of LNG bunker demand in 2023, after containerships.

LNG bunker demand in 2024

LNG consumption looks set for a record year in 2024, as sales figures from major hubs such as Singapore and Rotterdam point to sharply higher demand against a backdrop of competitive LNG prices compared with fuel oil.

In Rotterdam, the world’s biggest LNG bunkering hub, sales hit 206,000 tonnes in the first half of 2024, up by 72% on the year.

Singapore’s LNG bunker demand could catch up with Rotterdam in the coming years, as sales in the city-state more than quadrupled on the year to 160,000 tonnes in the first half.

LNG bunkering demand will grow further in the coming years, as hundreds of new dual-fuel vessels will hit the water.

To meet rising demand, LNG bunker firms will need more supply vessels, because DNV data shows there only 14 such vessels on order.

TotalEnergies, a major LNG supplier, estimates the sector will need 35 to 40 LNG bunker vessels to cope with demand between 2025 and 2030, because the firm expects LNG bunkering demand to reach 22m tonnes in 2030.

There are 51 LNG bunker vessels in operation, with more than half operating in Europe, according to TotalEnergies.

LNG bunker suppliers will need to overcome bottlenecks such as barge and loading capacity as well as slot availability at LNG terminals to meet rising demand from the growing dual-fuel fleet, but once there is demand, supply will surely come.