TotalEnergies Launch Port of Marseille Fos’ First Ship-to-Ship LNG Bunkering Operation

As the marine industry continues its drive towards decarbonization, we are proud to be part of TotalEnergies’ commitment to support and facilitate our shipping customers globally as they make the transition to cleaner fuels.

The latest demonstration of the significant investment being made in critical LNG bunkering infrastructure saw TotalEnergies Marine Fuels and its customer, CMA CGM, performing Marseilles’ first ship-to-ship Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering operation in the Port of Marseille Fos, Southern France.

TotalEnergies’ Gas Vitality, the first LNG bunker vessel based in France, refuelled the CMA CGM BALI, a 15,000 TEU(*) LNG-powered containership is deployed on the MEX 1 service, connecting Asia and South Europe, with around 6,000m³ of LNG, by means of a ship-to-ship transfer alongside the Eurofos container terminal.

Gas Vitality is TotalEnergies' second chartered LNG bunker vessel and owned by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd (MOL).

This entire operation highlighted a solid collaborative teamwork right across the French maritime industry including the involvement of local port authorities to enable the vessels’ safe operation and the commitments of all the parties to support the growing role of LNG in the shipping’s energy transition.

“TotalEnergies is delighted to successfully complete Marseille’s first LNG bunkering operation of a containership via the Gas Vitality. Her deployment underscores the Company’s commitment to support the French port’s ambition to be an LNG bunkering hub for the Mediterranean region,” said Jérôme Leprince-Ringuet, Vice-President Marine Fuels at TotalEnergies. “This landmark operation also demonstrates our continued support to the growing role of LNG in shipping’s energy transition. In line with TotalEnergies’ climate ambition, we will continue to work hand-in-hand with our industry partners to develop and scale up new, lower-carbon and ultimately, zero-carbon fuel solutions for shipping.”

TotalEnergies has actively invested in LNG bunkering infrastructure, critical to support its shipping customers’ uptake of LNG as a marine fuel.

In addition to the Gas Vitality, TotalEnergies also charters another 18,600-m³ LNG bunker vessel, the Gas Agility, which is based at the Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Since the start of its LNG bunkering operations in November 2020, the Company has supplied more than 400,000 m³ of LNG in key European hubs. A third LNG bunker vessel is expected to start operations in 2022, at the Port of Singapore, where the Company has been awarded an LNG bunker supplier license for a five-year term since January 1st, 2022.

(*) TEU=Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit. Unit used to measure a container ship’s cargo carrying capacity