Unibarge secures methanol bunker licenses for key European ports

Two vessels have already completed a bunkering operation barge In July 2024: Chicago, Unibarge’s 3,238 dwt bunker, and the 1,170 TEU boxship Eco Umande, operated by independent common carrier X-Press Feeders of Singapore. The latter one was dubbed to be the world’s first methanol dual-fuel engine conversion for a container vessel.

In an operation conducted at the Delta Barge Feeder port in Rotterdam during the third week of February 2025, Unibarge disclosed that Chicago was for successfully supplying Eco Umande with green methanol.

Chicago, or more specifically, the first inland waterway boat to also function as a methanol bunker delivery ship in Europe, is thought to be the continent’s first dual-fuel bunker barge driven by green methanol. In early 2023, Unibarge and OCI N.V. (OCI), a fuel manufacturer based in the Netherlands, collaborated to refit the unit with methanol dual-fuel propulsion.

Back then, company representatives clarified that the barge would be powered by low-carbon and renewable methanol in addition to traditional biofuels. This makes this project particularly significant for the maritime industry’s climate neutrality goals.

Since 2023, the Port of Rotterdam has been regularly providing seagoing vessels with methanol bunkering. The port claims that the demand for bio-methanol increased from 750 tonnes in 2023 to about 4,000 tonnes in 2024 following the first bio-methanol operation that year.