Maritime and offshore services firm Crowley Shipping has accepted delivery of the LNG bunker barge Progress.
Progress is the largest US Jones Act-compliant vessel of its kind and construction was completed at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.
Measuring 416 ft (128 m) in length, the barge has a capacity of 3.17 million gallons (12 million litres) and includes capability developed by Shell and Crowley‘s engineering services group to deliver LNG to various types of containment systems.
Crowley will deploy the Progress to the port of Savannah, where it will be chartered to Shell for refuelling LNG dual-fuel vessels. This comes as LNG is rapidly rising as an increasing fuel for the world’s container fleet.
In July, Crowley received a USD 2.3 billion, seven-year contract from the US Transportation Command to support the military’s transportation and logistics requirements under the Defense Freight Transportation Services (DFTS) programme.
