On November 3, “Xin Ao Pu Tuo”, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunker vessel, delivered LNG bunkering service for “ZIM AMBER” at Yantian Port. 

By far, the two LNG bunkering services providers in Shenzhen have refueled 50,000 cubic metres of LNG in total and expanded their services to Zhoushan and other areas. Now, a LNG bunkering centre in East Asia is taking shape.

In the more than three years since the Central Government approved Shenzhen for international bunkering pilot, Shenzhen has achieved another new milestone.

01 Set up a dedicated work team
After Shenzhen was approved for international bonded fuel bunkering in 2020, it reformed bonded fuel with Shenzhen license in 2021 and then commenced bonded LNG bunkering pilot. Shenzhen set up a dedicated work team led by the city's main leaders in charge, with Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Yantian District People's Government, other government agencies, YANTIAN, bunkering service providers, and professional organizations playing respective roles and promoting the preparatory work.

02  Drive infrastructure upgrade to offer robust support
Shenzhen focuses on the development of bunkering infrastructure and connects YANTIAN, the world's largest container terminal run by a single operator, with the Dapeng LNG corridor, which has the strongest LNG receiving and discharging capacity in the country, to build a competitive LNG bunkering centre in East Asia. At present, there are three licensed LNG bunkering supply terminals in Shenzhen with loading capacity, allowing bunker vessels to quickly go to Yantian Port for bunkering operations after loaded with LNG at the terminals.

03  Innovate the LNG bunkering process
Bonded fuel supply for international vessels is an important indicator to measure the level of internationalisation and supporting services of ports, therefore, Shenzhen has made every effort to optimise the bunkering service to build a better port service environment. Relying on the existing infrastructure layout of Shenzhen Port, Shenzhen has explored and innovated a new bunkering process of simultaneous bunkering and loading/unloading at the terminal, which greatly shortens the waiting time of vessels, giving momentum to the growth of LNG bunkering service.

Shenzhen customs, Maritime Safety Administration, frontier inspection and other port supervisory authorities have taken the initiative to launch a series of supporting measures, such as direct supply across regions, multiple supply by one vessel, and supply before declaration, to optimise the bunkering processes and reduce the preparation time before fuel supply. This year, online "one-stop service" is in place for bonded fuel on the government platform, which turns paper work into convenient fingertip operation, realising information sharing and simultaneous processing.

LNG bunkering is in line with the trend of decarbonisation and emission reduction in the shipping industry, the peak carbon emission and carbon neutrality targets of the Chinese government, and will help the bonded fuel industry in Shenzhen make a stride towards high-quality development.

YANTIAN will also continue to work with various parties to conduct feasibility study and initiate LNG bunkering services in Hong Kong, attract LNG-fuelled container vessels and cruise ships to call at Hong Kong, thereby enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international shipping centre. We will also keep deepening the cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong to build a win-win port, shipping, modern logistics, industrial chain, and supply chain service system to boost the international competitiveness of the Greater Bay Area, contribute to the country’s peak carbon emission and carbon neutrality targets, and make unremitting efforts for the high-quality development of international trade of China.