First LNG Ship Bunkering Hub in US Gulf Coast Secures Permits to Start Work

(Reuters) – A joint venture project developing the first marine fuel facility for liquefied natural gas in the U.S. Gulf Coast has secured final permits and construction is expected to begin later this year, executives involved said on Monday.

The global shipping industry has been looking for fuel solutions to cut carbon emissions, with LNG seen as a cleaner alternative.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to expand LNG exports to help reduce Europe’s dependency on Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

U.S. LNG can be used as a marine fuel in U.S. ports and surrounding waters without export licences needed, which is emerging as a separate market that the project is looking to capitalise on.

The facility is located on the Texas City Ship Channel and the Galveston LNG Bunker Port (GLBP) company will supply LNG by fuel barge to the expanding fleet of LNG-fuelled vessels in the greater Houston-Galveston region, GLBP said.

GLBP is a joint venture between Houston based Pilot LNG and Seapath, a subsidiary of global business group Libra.

The total project’s overall cost is estimated in the region of at least $300 million, Seapath said.

The project received the final authorisations from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Initial bunker deliveries are scheduled for the second half of 2027, Seapath said.

“After several years of challenging and complex work … we are now comfortably ahead in the marketplace to be the first dedicated LNG marine fuels supplier in the U.S. Gulf,” Seapath’s president Josh Lubarsky added in a statement.

“We have made a significant financial commitment to this project and, over the course of the last few years, have positioned GLBP to be the foremost clean fuel supply hub in the Galveston Bay/Gulf region.”

The first phase of production at the 140-acre greenfield development will target 360,000 gallons per day (gpd), which will come online within approximately two years, with the second phase for a full production of 720,000 gpd, approximately eight to 12 months thereafter, Seapath said.

The GLBP project is the second dedicated LNG bunkering facility in the U.S. after Florida-headquartered joint venture JAX LNG, which operates a 360,000 gpd plant.

GLBP will also support Port Houston – the largest port for waterborne tonnage in the U.S., which has $906 billion in national economic value.

Libra Group, which has more than 50 years of maritime experience, also owns Lomar Shipping that operates a fleet of more than 40 vessels.

Libra’s other maritime subsidiary, Americraft Marine, owns and operates a Jones Act shipyard in Florida – one of the few in the U.S. that is building crew transfer vessels to service the growing offshore wind industry, as well as tugboats and barges.

Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle