Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Wednesday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Singapore LNG Corporation to collaborate on an interim truck loading facility, which will be used to service LNG bunkering.
The facility will also be used to serve a variety of other industries that may require small volumes of LNG to be transported over land.
The port authority said in its statement it has committed up to approximately S$2 million (approximately US$1.46 million) to co-fund the development of the facility, which will be operationally ready by early 2017.
It has engaged SRING Singapore, the government’s development agency, to develop the technical reference for Singapore’s LNG bunkering standards. This TR will be launched in early 2017, providing a framework for LNG bunkering operations.
MPA added that out of the S$12 million allocated for the co-funding programme for LNG-fuelled vessels, a total of S$8 million has been awarded to Harley Marine Asia, Keppel Smit Towage and Maju Maritime that plan to build tugboats and bunker tankers.
In order to boost the uptake of LNG bunker by local harbour craft, the port authority decided to waive five years of port dues for new LNG-fuelled harbour craft that register with MPA between 1 October 2017 and 31 December 2019.
To complement this, MPA will also grant an additional 10 percent port dues concession for the Green Port Programme qualifying vessels that engage LNG-fuelled harbour craft for their port operations, port authority said.
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