#lng

Scout however

About a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.

Their plight has shone a spotlight on the complex and dirty relationship between shipping and the fossil fuel industry. The sector is one of the most polluting, with most ship engines fuelled by what has been called the dregs of the oil refining process, heavy and carbon-intensive diesel too filthy for any other purpose. Shipping produces about 3% of global greenhouse gases, a portion set to rise as trade globalises further.

But the relationship with oil goes even deeper: not only are vessels dependent on “bunker fuel”, but shipping companies also rely heavily on fossil fuels as cargo. “About 40% of the global fleet is used to transport fossil fuels,” said Marie Fricaudet, of the shipping and oceans group at the Energy Institute, University College London. “[That’s] a trade that must be phased out to prevent the most severe impacts of climate change.”

At the International Maritime Organization (IMO) headquarters on the banks of the Thames in London, two weeks of talks among scores of governments focused on the means of decarbonising shipping are at their midpoint. Insiders have told the Guardian that many countries have been assailed by fierce pro-oil lobbying.

Liberia, Panama and Greece are among countries that appear to have shifted their position, switching from support for strict controls on greenhouse gas emissions to attempting to scrap new regulation.

If the world is to make the shift needed away from fossil fuels to a green economy, cleaning up shipping will be vital. But when so many shipping companies, and so many countries with big fleets, have a vested commercial interest in keeping the world hooked on oil, any attempts to green the fleet can quickly run aground.

LNG, trade in which has been severely disrupted by the closure of Hormuz, is one of the most costly fuels to move. It must be stored in specially cooled containers and transported in some of the most expensive vessels around. Companies and countries have invested heavily in these, partly in response to the last oil crisis sparked in 2022 by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when European countries and others began to look for other sources of gas. Before that, LNG was benefiting from the move away from coal.

But repeated oil crises have prompted many countries to consider renewables as a better bet for long-term energy security. Though in the near term “there are plenty of economies with a high dependency on gas”, one person involved in the IMO talks said, these factors mean LNG “is looking particularly dodgy in the midterm, the mid-2030s”.

David Pocock on X:

Labor, the Coalition and One Nation all just voted against an amendment I put up to call on the Government to get a fair deal on the sale and export of Australian gas by instituting a 25 per cent tax on LNG export revenue, which is estimated to generate $17 billion a year.

They're running a protection racket for the gas industry rather than standing up for Aussies.