Canada’s Cryopeak LNG Solutions Corporation and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop a LNG bunker fuels supply chain in North America’s Pacific Northwest ports.

The ports include Vancouver, Fraser River Port, Roberts Bank and Prince Rupert.

The agreement aims to build an industrial platform for procuring and supplying environmentally-friendly and low-cost LNG for use as a marine fuel globally.

Cryopeak is developing a proprietary design for a 4,000-cu m LNG bunkering barge to be used in an articulated tug and barge configuration (ATB), with plans to be in operation in 2023.

The ATB will provide ship-to-ship transfers of LNG to receiving vessels and ship-to-shore transfers to small-scale marine distribution infrastructure in the North American Pacific Northwest.

Cryopeak has a partnership with Island Tug & Barge, a marine bulk fuels transporter, to develop the LNG bunkering ATB and jointly provide LNG bunkering solutions to the shipping industry.

“Cryopeak is excited to collaborate with Sumitomo Corporation to further LNG bunkering activity in North America. Both companies are driven by a desire to make purposeful and significant contributions to environmental improvement and sustainability,” said Calum McClure, ceo of Cryopeak. “Offering a safe and efficient LNG bunkering solution is critical to the adoption of LNG as a marine fuel to the shipping industry.”

Sumitomo will offer Cryopeak’s end-to-end LNG fuelling solutions to existing and potential customers in ports on the West Coast of North America.

Shu Nakamura, department general manager of Sumitomo, said: “With this agreement, we pursue our ambition to build a comprehensive network of LNG bunkering. It also underscores our commitment to offer our customers the best available and technologically proven solution to significantly reduce the environmental footprint of maritime transport.”