The General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) has announced that the first bunkering operation at the Port of Sokhna was undertaken by the Minerva barge Karpathos, which delivered 950 tons of fuel to the CMA CGM Suez containership.
The fuel supply took place whilst the vessel was at berth in the first basin of the container handling terminal at the Port of Sokhna, which is operated by DP World-Sokhna.
Waleid Gamal El-Dien, chairman of SCZONE, commented on the delivery milestone: ‘We are happy with the success of this operation, as it comes within the framework of SCZONE’s commitment to develop the infrastructure and improvw the services provided to the vessels, which will contribute to attract more shipping lines and provisw maritime services, especially for those passing through the Suez Canal, including those transiting SCZONE’s ports.
‘There is continuous work within SCZONE’s ports for providing distinctive and advanced services to ships, in accordance with the high technical and legal standards, indicating that this service comes within the plans of expansion and growth to achieve Egypt’s strategy for the transformation into a regional and leading ships’ bunkering hub.’
As previously reported, at the end of May Minerva announced it had secured a licence to supply bunkers at the Suez Canal and 12 Egyptian ports, At the time, the company said it had already undertaken 10 deliveries, including the refuelling of Hafnia’s Hafnia Azurite and Cargill Ocean Transportation’s Gat Feeling.
In early June, Peninsula announced that it had established a physical supply operation in Suez and had plans to offer very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO), high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) 3.5% and low sulphur marine gasoil (LSMGO).
