LONDON, Sept 5 | Wed Sep 5, 2012 7:23am EDT
(Reuters) – Shell has turned to liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered barges to transport oil products along the river Rhine as tougher environmental standards drive a switch to less polluting fuels.
Shell said on Wednesday it has chartered two newbuild barges fueled by LNG and expects to use it to power more of its inland shipping.
The move away from oil was a first for Shell and the inland marine industry, the company said in a statement. The Rhine is an important shipping route for commodities including grains, minerals, coal and oil products including heating oil.
It is a major route for Switzerland’s commodity imports.
Barges have run on fuels with a high sulphur content, but new anti-pollution laws imposed by the European Union (EU) will require the sulphur content in shipping fuels to fall sharply from 2015.
“Shell sees real growth opportunities for LNG as a fuel in coastal and inland shipping in Europe,” Shell Vice President for Shipping Grahaeme Henderson said in a statement.
“LNG can help shipping operators meet strict emissions standards, such as those that are due to apply on the Rhine,” he added.
The extent of emission reductions mandated by new EU laws varies according to region.
Ships plying sulphur emission control areas in the Baltic, North Sea and English Channel must reduce sulphur content to 0.1 percent compared with 1 percent now. While in other EU waters, they will be limited to 0.5 percent sulphur content by 2020.
Shell expects to receive the first of its two LNG-fuelled barges in the spring of 2013 from Netherlands-based Interstream Barging.
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
