Singapore to train international maritime personnel in use of low-emission fuels

SINGAPORE will set up a facility to train international maritime personnel in the use of cleaner fuels such as methanol and ammonia, as part of the Republic’s move towards these alternative ship fuels.

The Maritime Energy Training Facility (METF) is expected to prompt industry players to invest in related training facilities and solutions in Singapore as well so as to tap this growth area, said the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

Announcing this at the opening ceremony of Singapore Maritime Week on Monday (Apr 15), Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat said: “Seafarers and other maritime personnel can acquire the necessary skills for safe handling, bunkering, and incident management of alternative fuels and low- or zero-emission vessels.”

The maritime industry has signalled “strong demand” for common training facilities in this area, said MPA.

Most ships burn fuel oil, a fossil fuel, but methanol and ammonia are emerging as lower-carbon alternatives. The facility will cover those two fuels for a start, though hydrogen may be added in the future.

At Monday’s ceremony, MPA chief executive Teo Eng Dih signed a letter of intent to establish the facility with 22 industry partners, including international organisations, classification societies, unions and institutes of higher learning.

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To be developed by 2026, the METF is not a single organisation, but a network of planned and existing training facilities.

These include an upcoming dual-fuel marine engine simulator for training on the safe handling, bunkering and management of alternative fuels, and the recently upgraded S$2.8 million Wavelink Maritime Simulation Centre.

Other existing facilities include simulators at the Singapore Maritime Academy, Wavelink Maritime Institute and Singapore Polytechnic’s augmented-reality enabled Centre of Excellence in Maritime Safety.

An MPA spokesperson said that the facility’s cost spans various partners’ existing and upcoming facilities, as well as investments. Hence, the cost of the overall METF capability depends on the collective investments of all the partners over time.

The cost of the training will be borne by the organisations the personnel belong to.

Ship owners and operators can save time and training costs by using these facilities. About 10,000 maritime personnel – including ship engineers, port workers and surveyors – are expected to be trained through the 2030s.

As an example of related investments in Singapore, MPA noted that marine engine manufacturer MAN Energy Solutions set up a 20-million-euro (S$29.1 million) service facility with a training academy in March.

As part of the facility’s curriculum, the Singapore Maritime Academy has also launched a training course on handling methanol as a ship fuel, one of the first of such courses in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore is the world’s top port for bunkering, or supplying fuel to ships. The MPA has been preparing for the adoption of lower-carbon fuels, holding the world’s first ammonia bunkering trial last month, and Singapore’s first methanol bunkering trial in July 2023.

Later this week, a baseline study will be published about the future demand for zero and near-zero emission fuels along the route between Singapore and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Chee said. This is under the Green and Digital Shipping Corridor that was established with those ports during last year’s Singapore Maritime Week.

Organised by the MPA, this year’s Singapore Maritime Week runs from Apr 15 to 19.

In his speech, Chee also gave an update on Singapore’s port performance this year, following a record year in 2023. In the first quarter of 2024, vessel arrival tonnage rose 7.3 per cent and container throughput rose 10.7 per cent, compared to the year-ago period.

Another new development is MPA’s collaboration with Amazon Web Services to create a maritime Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Digital Hub, noted Chee.

The first of its kind in Asean, the hub will harness AI and ML technologies to improve the maritime industry in areas such as route and fuel optimisation and carbon emissions accounting.

“Instead of building this capability on our own, we think it is quicker and better to work with a leading company like Amazon Web Services,” said Chee. The Ministry of Transport and its statutory boards will adopt this same approach in other areas, he added.