DMEA: ZIM, Shell sign 10-year LNG bunkering deal

ZIM Integrated Shipping Services (Israel) has secured fuel supplies for 10 new LNG-powered ships that are due to enter its fleet in 2023-2024 under a long-term bunkering contract with a subsidiary of Shell (UK).

The Israeli company announced the signing of the contract with Shell NA LNG in a statement dated August 31. It said the parties had finalised a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with a term of 10 years and put the value of the deal at more than $1bn.

ZIM did not specify the exact volumes of LNG involved in the transaction. However, it did note that Shell NA LNG had agreed to provide fuel for 10 LNG-powered container ships, each of them a 15,000-TEU vessel capable of handling the equivalent of 15,000 standard 20-foot containers, over the 10-year period of the SPA. All of the ships will serve the Israeli company’s ZIM Container Service Pacific (ZCP) division, which moves goods between Asia and the US East Coast, it noted.