Eni and RINA join forces to accelerate the energy transition and decarbonisation of maritime transport

By | 2023 Newsletter week 22 | No Comments

Italy’s oil major Eni Group has signed up with class society RINA to work together on green-fuel initiatives, particularly in the maritime bunkering market.

The agreement focuses on the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biofuel produced by Eni in its Venice and Gela bio-refineries. Eni’s HVO is made from feedstocks that do not compete directly with food and feed crops, such as waste and agricultural residues.

The firm currently supplies HVO-based diesel for heavy transport and bio-jet fuel (sustainable aviation fuel) for aircraft. It aims to have about 4 million tonnes of production capacity online by the middle of the decade, enough to supply 1% of maritime bunkering demand if all of the output were reserved for maritime users.

Production of these sustainable oils is expected to scale up rapidly to 20,000 tons by 2023, and Eni hopes to have a vertically integrated supply chain of waste oil and non-edible oil of 700,000 tonnes per year by 2026. It is replicating its results in Kenya across other African countries and further abroad.

The partnership also extends to future marine fuels like blue and green hydrogen and ammonia, as well as the logistics and distribution of new energy carriers and the adoption of methods for calculating the emissions benefits.

Eni and RINA might also pursue experiments and pilot projects in on-board carbon capture.

European Green Deal: Agreement reached on cutting maritime transport emissions by promoting sustainable fuels for shipping

By | 2023 Newsletter week 12 | No Comments

Thursday 23 March 2023, co-legislators agreed on FuelEU Maritime – a new EU regulation ensuring that the greenhouse gas intensity of fuels used by the shipping sector will gradually decrease over time, by 2% in 2025 to as much as 80% by 2050.

This measure will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the shipping sector by promoting the use of cleaner fuels and energy. [source: European Commission]

FuelEU Maritime will help decarbonise the maritime transport sector by setting maximum limits on the yearly greenhouse gas intensity of the energy used by a ship. The targets cover not only CO2, but also methane and nitrous oxide emissions over the full lifecycle of the fuels.

The new rules also introduce an additional zero-emission requirement at berth, mandating the use of on-shore power supply (OPS) or alternative zero-emission technologies in ports by passenger ships and containerships, with a view to mitigating air pollution emissions in ports, which are often close to densely populated areas.

FuelEU Maritime takes a goal-based and technology-neutral approach, allowing for innovation and the development of new fuel technologies to meet future needs, and offering operators the freedom to decide which to use based on ship-specific or operation-specific profiles.

The Regulation also provides for a voluntary pooling mechanism. Under this scheme, ships will be allowed to pool their compliance balance with one or more other ships. Thus, it will be the pool as a whole that has to meet the greenhouse gas intensity limits on average.

FERRY PORTS

By | 2020 Newsletter week 25 | No Comments

The European Commission has approved under EU State aid rules the prolongation until end 2023 of various Italian support measures for maritime transport under Italy’s “International Registry” scheme. The scheme encourages shipping companies to register their ships in Europe and so ensure higher social, environmental and safety standards.

Italy has also committed to a number of changes to its scheme to avoid undue competition distortion as well as to prevent any discrimination between shipping companies and registries of different European Economic Area (EEA) States.

At Least Three Groups of Companies Tendering for Local Maritime Transport in Venice

By | 2020 Newsletter week 10 | No Comments
  1. Caronte&Tourist in joint venture with Venezia City Sightseeing
  2. Alilauro, through the joint venture Alivenice created with Granturismo Venezia
  3. Bluferries

are the three group of companies which participated at the tender launched by the Municipality of Venice for a part of the maritime transport services in the lagoon.

This tender was launched some years ago and has been pending until now. A final decision is expected for April. The 9-year public contract is worth €178m and regards a 10% of the local public maritime transport services not managed by the Municipality-controlled ferry company Actv.