Pro­man Ste­na Bulk, a joint ven­ture (JV) be­tween methanol pro­duc­er Pro­man and Ste­na Bulk, to­day an­nounced the de­liv­ery of its sec­ond methanol-pow­ered new­build tanker, Ste­na Pro Ma­rine.

In a joint re­lease, the com­pa­nies said Ste­na Pro Ma­rine en­ter­ing nor­mal op­er­a­tion is an­oth­er state­ment of in­tent to the mar­ket that it is not on­ly pos­si­ble, but more im­por­tant­ly, it is op­er­a­tional­ly ef­fec­tive to use methanol as a ma­rine fu­el to­day, with methanol al­ready avail­able at over 120 ports world­wide, in­clud­ing all ma­jor bunker­ing hubs.

Ani­ta Ga­jad­har, MD of Pro­man Ship­ping, Mar­ket­ing and Lo­gis­tics, said ves­sels such as the Ste­na Pro Ma­rine demon­strate to shipown­ers and pol­i­cy-mak­ers that the in­dus­try can take proac­tive and im­me­di­ate steps on the de­car­bon­i­sa­tion path­way.

She added, “Pro­man and oth­er pro­duc­ers are ramp­ing up in­vest­ments in low-car­bon methanol tech­nolo­gies and re­new­ables projects to meet rapid­ly ex­pand­ing cus­tomer de­mand.

“As reg­u­la­tors con­tin­ue to pro­pel much-need­ed mar­itime de­car­bon­i­sa­tion, in­clud­ing the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ leg­isla­tive pack­age, these ves­sels un­der­line the im­por­tance of a reg­u­la­to­ry frame­work that re­lies on one cer­ti­fi­ca­tion method­ol­o­gy for al­ter­na­tive fu­els and ac­cu­rate emis­sion mea­sure­ments of all fu­els—in­clud­ing re­duced car­bon-in­ten­si­ty fos­sil-ori­gin prod­ucts, which play an im­por­tant ear­ly role in ac­cel­er­at­ing the switch to clean­er fu­els and en­abling the path­way to net-ze­ro.”

Erik Hånell, Pres­i­dent and CEO of Ste­na Bulk said his com­pa­ny was proud to be able to add Ste­na Pro Ma­rine along­side Ste­na Pro Pa­tria to its fleet with this de­liv­ery an­nounce­ment.

“We tru­ly be­lieve that these ves­sels are not on­ly a step for­ward for MR tanker de­sign but are al­so a clear state­ment of in­tent to the mar­ket. They show­case our con­fi­dence in methanol as an im­por­tant and vi­able so­lu­tion for the fu­ture of sus­tain­able ship­ping.” Hånell added.

Along­side pi­o­neer­ing the methanol tankers, Pro­man and Ste­na Bulk said they are al­so com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing the de­vel­op­ment of frame­works for methanol up­take in ship­ping.

The JV will con­tin­ue to in­vest in methanol as a ma­rine fu­el and sup­port leg­is­la­tion and reg­u­la­tions that dri­ve methanol’s vi­a­bil­i­ty to­day while con­tin­u­ing to de­vel­op pro­duc­tion and in­fra­struc­ture for to­mor­row.

Pro­man is one of the world’s largest methanol ex­porters and the largest pro­duc­er in T&T.