Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and cost of energy transport from Saudi Arabia with conventional fuels and liquefied natural gas

Abstract

The International Maritime Organization has recently developed several regulations to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To meet these targets, ship builders and operators must either replace or upgrade the existing fleet with new decarbonized vessel technologies and/or switch to alternative fuels. The latter has been of interest, especially using liquefied natural gas (LNG), among other alternative fuels, which can have lower emissions than conventional fuels. In Saudi Arabia in 2023, LNG was priced about 10 times lower than in Europe. In this study, Well-to-Wake life cycle GHG emissions and cost are calculated for a SUEZMAX tanker operating with three fuel options: high sulfur fuel oil, very low sulfur fuel oil and LNG. This is done for two different trips, for Saudi Arabia to Japan and Saudi Arabia to the Netherlands. Results show 11% and 12% life cycle GHG emissions reduction with LNG for trips to the Netherlands and Japan, respectively. From a sensitivity analysis of methane slip, LNG cost and anchoring time, the cost of GHG abatement for the LNG vessel varied from 171 United States dollars (USD) to –255 USD, and from 206 USD to –191 USD per ton of GHG, for the trip to the Netherlands and Japan, respectively.