Naftomar is looking to be a pioneer in the green ammonia space, as new supply and value chains for low carbon fuels start to develop.

The project will work to help ensure a modern VLAC design, to be engaged in the trade of green ammonia, can be safely built to operate with both LPG and ammonia as fuel. The project will use the current Bureau Veritas Rules for ammonia NR 671 as fuel as the basis for helping ensure safety. The focus will be on global safety aspects but specifically including: the ammonia fuel supply system, leak detection, ammonia fuel containment and ammonia bunkering including hazard identification (HAZID) workshops.

Vassilios Dimoulas, Bureau Veritas Technology and Innovation Director said that this is an important project to work with the owner and shipyard to provide a safe pathway to enable a ship designed to carry ammonia, to run on ammonia as fuel. The challenges are specific to ammonia but the process of using a risk based approach and alternative design concepts are ones proven with our decades of work in the seaborne trade in LNG and LNG as fuel – but, we must emphasize, the challenges of ammonia are very different to those of LNG.’

Using the Bureau Veritas ammonia Rules is critical given that international regulatory requirements for ammonia as a fuel are still in development.
In November 2023 Naftomar Shipping & Trading confirmed an order at Hanwha Ocean for four 93,000 cbm VLACs for delivery starting in 2026.