As the maritime industry experiencing heightened focus over methane (CH₄) emissions, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG), this publication emphasises the urgent need to reduce and eliminate all onboard marine fuel pollutants and GHG emissions, along with their broader environmental impact. The document’s primary focus is on addressing onboard fugitive and operational emissions, and emergency releases. While methane is a central concern, particularly with insights drawn from LNG-fuelled vessels (LFVs), this guide also proposes an ‘onboard emissions reduction framework’ that can be adapted to cover emissions from other low and zero-carbon marine fuels, including methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen. Methane’s environmental implications, especially as a GHG, underscore the need for targeted action, but the scope of this publication extends further.

This 2021 edition applies a new and holistic approach to LNG bunkering. The reader is taken on a journey starting from the design stage of the vessel and the supply bunkering facility, via the planning and preparation stages of the bunkering location, to the operations to be completed during the bunkering by a vessel fuelled with LNG. For each stage, recommendations are made to all the stakeholders involved in the bunkering of LNG-fuelled ships with the focus on ensuring that they are bunkered safely, reliably and efficiently, and that undesirable fugitive gas emissions do not take place during operations.