Middle-East and Africa LNG Bunkering Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Middle-East and Africa LNG bunkering market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 4.65% over the period of 2020-2025. Stringent environmental regulations to curb emissions coupled with the abundant availability of natural gas is expected to stimulate industry growth. Also, increasing focus to maintain fossil fuel sustainability along with rising concerns to minimize environmental impact are some of the driving factors for the LNG bunkering market in the region. Moreover, reducing the sulfur content from conventional fuel is capital intensive, which is likely to hamper the market studied.

Key Highlights

• As of 2019, the tanker fleet has accounted for the largest market share and is expected to continue the same trend during the forecast period.
• Implementation of LNG bunkering activities also provides a great opportunity for the Middle-East and Africa regional LNG bunkering operator companies to serve the inbound European ships, which have strict environmental regulation norms to follow.
• The United Arab Emirates has been one of the major emerging countries in the implementation of LNG bunkering activities in the Middle-East and African region during the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Tanker Fleet Segment to Dominate the Market

• The tanker fleets include small tanker, intermediate tanker, medium-range 1 (MR1), medium-range 2 (MR2), Large Range 1 (LR1), Large Range 2 (LR2), Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) and Ultra Large Crude Carrier (ULCC), which differ on the basis of tanker capacity.
• Presently, tankers use standard fuel oils and diesel for fleets, which according to the regulations of IMO 2020, from 1st January 2020, have to be shifted to low sulfur content fuel or LNG.
• As of May 2020, 27 of LNG fueled tanker fleets were in operation globally. However, there are other tankers that majorly use low sulfur oil and marine gas oil as fuel.
• However, with the regulations related to sulfur content in the fuel, LNG is projected to become a reliant fuel for tankers in the coming years. As compared to other vessels, the number of LNG fuelled tanker fleets is more in the region.

The United Arab Emirates to Dominate the Market

• The Middle-East, with its enormous oil and gas reserves, has always been a center of trading activities. The United Arab Emirates is a major oil producer and exporter. In 2018, the state-owned oil company ADNOC announced that the country plans to increase its oil production capacity to 5 million bpd by 2030 after new oil and gas findings.
• The United Arab Emirates has been one of the emerging countries in the implementation of LNG bunkering activities in the Middle-East and African region.
• Furthermore, the implementation of LNG bunkering activities also provides an opportunity for the regional LNG bunkering operator companies to serve the inbound European ships, which have strict environmental regulation norms to follow.
• Port of Fujairah, the second-largest bunkering port globally, is the only multi-purpose port on the eastern seaboard of the United Arab Emirates.
• As part of the port’s bunkering expansion strategy, Fujairah is planning to introduce a ship-to-ship LNG transfer facility. The port is also working toward the improvement of rules and regulations to promote investments and more bunkering activities.
• Moreover, this has significantly increased the demand for LNG bunkering facilities in region during the forecast period.

Competitive Landscape

The Middle-East and Africa LNG bunkering market is moderately consolidated. Some of the key players in this market include Royal Dutch Shell PL, Total SA, JGC HOLDINGS CORPORATION, McDermott International Inc, and DNG Energy.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support