Norway's Equinor said on Wednesday it had entered a two-year agreement to deliver bio-methanol fuel to Norwegian car shipping group Wallenius Wilhelmsen.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen will receive the fuel at the ports of Zeebrugge and Antwerp in Belgium, with supplies to start towards the end of this year, Equinor said in a statement.
“We continue to see increasing interest in bio-methanol as a practical, scalable solution for decarbonisation of shipping," said Alex Grant, Senior Vice President of Crude, Products and Liquids (CPL) at Equinor.
"This partnership with Wallenius Wilhelmsen marks a substantial step forward in bringing Equinor’s bio-based methanol to the growing marine segment for low carbon fuels. Equinor has previously signed supply agreements for bio-methanol with Maersk and NCL, and we are progressing several leads for both bio and conventional methanol supply agreements.”
Equinor’s supply of bio-methanol is based on a combination of methanol produced at Equinor’s facility at Tjeldbergodden, Norway, and biogas certificates stemming from captured biogas from manure and other biomass in accordance with the EU Renewable Energy Directive.
(Reporting by Louise Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)