Marine fuel supplier Peninsula and Japanese trading house Itochu have launched a joint venture to develop ammonia bunkering across Europe.
The new company, I&P Marine Ammonia, will focus on key European and Mediterranean ports as the partners look to build supply chains for ammonia as a marine fuel.
The venture follows a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies in September 2023 covering the joint development of ammonia bunkering in Spain.
Itochu said at the time that the work would initially focus on Algeciras, a key bunkering location on the Strait of Gibraltar.
The European Commission cleared the creation of the joint venture earlier this year under the EU Merger Regulation.
The approval covered marketing services linked to ammonia bunkering supply operations, as well as trading, supply, procurement, logistics, sale and purchase of ammonia as marine fuel in the EU, Gibraltar and Morocco.
Peninsula said the new venture would combine its marine fuel supply network and customer base with Itochu’s fuel production and supply chain development capabilities.
The company supplies customers in more than 500 ports across major bunkering hubs and has been expanding beyond conventional bunker fuels into LNG, bio-LNG, biofuels, methanol and ammonia.
Itochu has also been building its ammonia fuel position. Last year, the Japanese group ordered what it described as the world’s first ammonia bunkering vessel (pictured). The 5,000 cu m vessel is being built at Sasaki Shipbuilding and is due to be operated in Singapore from 2027.
