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Shell Trading (US) Company has announced that it has finalized a long-term charter agreement with Q-LNG Transport, LLC for an LNG bunker barge with the capacity to carry up to 4,000 cubic metres (cbm) of LNG fuel.

The vessel will be owned and built by Q-LNG Transport and operated by Harvey Gulf International Marine, LLC.

As the first of its kind to be based in the United States, the ocean-going LNG bunker barge will supply LNG to marine customers along the southern U.S. east coast and be used to support growing cruise line demand for LNG marine fuel.

"This investment in LNG as a marine fuel for the US will provide the shipping industry with a fuel that helps meet tougher emissions regulations from 2020," said Maarten Wetselaar, Integrated Gas and New Energies Director at Shell.

"Our commitment in the Americas builds on Shell's existing LNG bunkering activities in Singapore and Europe, as well as recently announced plans in the Middle East and gives us the ability to deliver LNG as a marine fuel to customers around the world," Wetselaar added.

According to Shell, the LNG bunker barge will be highly efficient and maneuverable and feature an innovative transfer system, enabling it to load LNG from big or small terminals and bunker a variety of customers.

In August, Bunker Index reported that Shell had finalized an agreement to charter an LNG bunker barge with a capacity to carry 3,000 cbm of LNG fuel.

Operating out of Rotterdam, the move is designed to provide additional flexibility to bunker a range of customers, including vessels operating on Europe's inland waterways.

Shell's other LNG bunker vessel, Cardissa, was christened in September and will be used to perform deliveries to customers in northwest Europe, sourcing product from the Gas Access to Europe (Gate) terminal in Rotterdam. The vessel recently completed the delivery of 1,000 cbm of LNG into tanks at the new reloading station in Klaipeda, Lithuania, after sourcing product from Klaipedos Nafta's floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Independence.