Shipping in Equinor

Our seaborne transportation of crude, liquid refinery products, liquid petroleum gas and LNG volumes involves more than 2300 voyages worldwide per year and moves about 100 million tonnes annually.

Today, over 175 ships are at work collecting and transporting energy products, fetching and bringing equipment and providing emergency standby services just for Equinor – an enormous number of transport movements.

The maritime sector represents 6% of total greenhouse gas emissions in Norway and 2–3% of global emissions.

As a producer and supplier of fuel to the maritime sector, Equinor has extensive maritime activity around the world, including around 175 vessels on contract with the company at any one time.

Equinor has set the following ambitions for its maritime activity:

• By 2030: Halving maritime emissions in Norway compared to 2005 emissions
• By 2050: Halving global emissions compared to 2008 emissions.

As a supplier of fuel to the maritime sector, Equinor’s ambition is as follows:

• By 2030: Escalating production and use of low-carbon fuels
• By 2050: Strongly increase production and use of zero-emission fuels

The ocean, and the expertise associated with it, is one of Equinor’s priority areas. Low carbon shipping is a natural part of this commitment.

• Equinor’s ambitions in offshore wind will be yet another driver for decarbonisation of shipping.
• New transport demand for Liquid CO₂ and CCS value chain is in need for low carbon solutions

We are undertaking a comprehensive newbuilding plan to renew our shipping fleet.

• 9 newbuildings will be put into operation in Equinor’s tanker shipping fleet by 2026, following the 15 newbuilds already in operation from 2020.
• Dual-fuel LPG propulsion for LPG carriers and dual-fuel LNG on shuttle tankers and Aframax / LR2s
• Through the Northern Lights JV, newbuild liquefied CO₂ transport ships fitted with high pressure dual-fuel LNG and energy saving technologies such as rotor sails and air lubrication will be delivered for start-up of the Longship project.
• Equinor has a long history in decarbonising our offshore fleet. The supply vessel Viking Energy was the first in Equinor’s fleet to be powered by LNG. Battery hybrid notation and shore power connection are now widely implemented in the fleet. Ongoing projects are exploring a fully electric alternative as well as ammonia technologies for the supply vessel segment.

The vessels are equipped with new carbon-efficient technologies such as dual fuel LNG, LPG, LVOC (Liquified Volatile Organic Compounds) to be blended with LNG as fuel, and hybrid battery systems.

A wide variety of measures are employed to reduce emissions from our logistical operations:

• Planning efficient sailing routes and optimal utilisation of vessels and helicopters.
• Fuel consumption as one of the evaluation criteria in awarding new vessel contracts.
• We have introduced requirements in our long-term contracts stating that supply vessels must have hybrid battery operation and be prepared for shore power.
• Incentives in the vessel contracts to reduce fuel consumption: shipowners are paid if their emissions are lower than agreed, and they must pay a surcharge if their emissions are higher than agreed.