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Crowley Maritime Corp has released a short video to show footage of construction of a new shoreside, liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering facility at the Talleyrand Marine Terminal in Jacksonville (Jaxport).

The LNG facility will serve Crowley's new LNG-powered, Commitment-class, combination container and roll-on/roll-off (ConRo) ships, which are under construction and to be used in the U.S. mainland to Puerto Rico trade.

Once completed, the site - which is around two acres wide - will hold just over 2,000 cubic metres of LNG.

In the video, Crowley's Matt Jackson, Vice President, LNG, describes the project and how it fits into Crowley's overall expansion and modernization plan for its Puerto Rico service.

Within the month, Chart Industries is expected to deliver two of its new, one million-litre 'Decinske Giant' cryogenic tanks for LNG storage at the site. Weighing 260 tonnes each, the tanks are en route to Jacksonville from Europe.

Crowley is investing more than $550 million in the LNG bunkering facility, two new ships, along with a new 900-foot pier, three new gantry cranes and improvements at its Isla Grande terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"The start of construction marks a milestone as we continue making progress with our partners, supplier Eagle LNG and Chart Industries, manufacturer of cryogenic storage tanks," commented Jackson.

"LNG will provide a cleaner, efficient fuel source for our industry-leading Commitment Class ships, and our new Jaxport bunkering terminal will support efficient operations with state-of-the art technology for bunkering operations," he added.

Houston-based Eagle LNG Partners was selected as the LNG supplier for Crowley's new Commitment-class ships back in December 2015.

Construction of its natural gas liquefaction plant in Maxville commenced in May 2016. Once completed, the facility will be able to produce 200,000 gallons of LNG per day (87,000 gallons per day initially). The plant features a one million-gallon storage tank and an LNG truck-loading system.

The Maxville facility will be used to supply LNG to Crowley's new LNG-powered Commitment-class ships, but has production capacity beyond Crowley's needs and will be available to both domestic clients in the Southeast, and island customers looking for containerized LNG supply.

The natural gas liquefaction plant is a distinct project from the Eagle LNG export terminal located along the St. Johns River, in Jacksonville, which will focus on export markets in the Caribbean and Atlantic Basin along with providing LNG supply for the domestic and marine bunkering markets.

Eagle LNG announced in January that it had filed its formal application with the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to site, construct and operate natural gas liquefaction and export facilities located at a site on the St. Johns River in Jacksonville.

The proposed project consists of three liquefaction trains, and at full build-out will be capable of producing up to 1.65 million gallons of LNG per day, or approximately one million tonnes per annum.

Eagle LNG has said that permission to begin construction could be granted by the first quarter of 2018 with commercial operations in 2019.

"Because of its multiple benefits, including being cleaner for the environment, we expect LNG demand for ship fuel to increase to 30 million tonnes a year by 2030. We recognize Crowley's leadership as an early adopter of this fuel," said Eagle LNG president Sean Lalani on Wednesday.

Crowley's new ConRo ships are scheduled to begin service in the second half of 2017 and first half of 2018. The ships, which are some of the world's first to be powered by LNG, are designed to travel at speeds of up to 22 knots and carry containers ranging in size from 20-foot standard to 53-foot-long, 102-inch-wide, high-capacity units, along with hundreds of vehicles in enclosed, weather-tight car decking.

A link to Crowey's video has been provided below.

Crowley LNG shoreside bunkering facility in Jacksonville