SHIPPING will use more than 16m tonnes of LNG per year as fuel by 2030, Shell has predicted in its latest LNG outlook.

That’s 60% more than the 10m tonnes per annum it predicted the sector would use by the end of the decade in 2023.

The majority of that demand will be driven by containerships, the outlook said. The box sector will account for some 60% of that demand, with tankers and ro-ro/ferries the next biggest segments.

Bulkers and cruise represent some of the smallest sectors in terms of LNG demand, accounting for a tonne or less per year of LNG demand by 2030.

Despite LNG shipping rates struggling to find a floor in 2025 after an already-disastrous end to 2024, Shell’s latest outlook predicts more than 170m tonnes of new LNG supply is set to come online by 2030, which will meet increased demand. Although the timings around those new projects remain uncertain.

It is US supply, which is expected to be the main source of this LNG glut, that is just around the corner. Shell forecasts that US supply will account for twice the size of Japan and South Korea’s LNG demand combined by 2030, and with Qatar will account for around 60% of global LNG supply.

Despite efforts to decarbonise, Europe is still expected to require LNG into the 2030s, though the region’s imports fell by 23m tonnes, or 19%, in 2024.

Conversely, Asian demand strengthened during the first half of 2024 as China took advantage of low prices, while Indian demand was high thanks to hot summer weather.

The first bunkering of a cruise vessel in the Asia-Pacific region was completed yesterday at the Singapore Cruise Centre. The Mitsui O.S.K. Lines-owned bunkering vessel Brassavola (IMO: 9880764) delivered LNG to Silversea Cruises’ Silver Nova (IMO: 9886213).

Singapore Cruise Centre chief executive Jacqueline Tan said the successful operation would pave the way for other LNG-powered cruiseships to bunkered at Singapore.