Greek owners have always known how to read a market. On the methane decarbonisation pathway, they are reading it correctly.
Greek owners have historically been the largest owners of LNG carriers. According to the Union of Greek Shipowners, they control 172 vessels, representing 23% of the global fleet by deadweight. More broadly, 7% of the Greek operational fleet can run on LNG, this percentage increases to 26% for the newbuilding fleet. That is not a bet on a single technology. It is a recognition that LNG dual-fuel keeps a shipowner’s options open.
The recent orderbook makes the point. George Economou was reported ordering up to 20 LNG dual-fuel containerships last year, while Evangelos Marinakis entered the LNG bunkering vessel market. This year Pantheon and Chandris have placed new LNG dual-fuel tanker orders. And Greek owners contracted 11 LNG carriers in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Across the wider market, LNG dual-fuel now accounts for about 80% of the alternative-fuel orderbook by dead weight tonnage, ahead of ammonia, hydrogen and methanol combined. Owners are choosing it because LNG dual-fuel vessels work today, and provide options for an uncertain future.
LNG is the first step on the methane decarbonisation pathway. Liquefied biomethane is bunkered routinely today. Liquefied e-methane is in development. This is what we mean by a fuel in transition: the fuel source shifts, while the fuel itself endures. The vessel and engine stay the same. Over the ship’s life, the fuel moves from fossil LNG toward biomethane and e-methane, and emissions fall with every step.
Greek shipping must also comply with increasingly stringent legislation. FuelEU Maritime rewards lower greenhouse-gas intensity: LNG can comply until the mid or late 2030s, depending on the dual-fuel technology and liquefied biomethane can help the industry reach net zero GHG emissions. Over-compliance has real commercial value as it generates credits which can be banked or sold to other fleet operators for compliance purposes.
The EU Emissions Trading System matters too. On 17 July the European Commission published its ETS review, including a new Sustainable Maritime Alternative Propulsion mechanism to recycle carbon revenues back into shipping and help close the price gap for low-carbon, bio- and e-fuels. That is welcome. But the detail will decide its worth, and as drafted it risks excluding fuel produced outside the EU. This is a real concern for a maritime industry that sources its fuel globally.
Getting the detail right is what SEA-LNG does. We have worked in Brussels for years to keep regulation goal-based and technology neutral, so that no compliant fuel is disadvantaged by design.
The same work now begins in earnest at the IMO. Last month SEA-LNG was granted consultative status at the Organization. For the first time we can take our members’ practical, operational expertise directly to member states, rather than through third parties. That is a seat at the table, one that belongs to our members. A great deal remains to be settled particularly in relation to the Net Zero Framework and its underlying guidelines. Unlike other NGOs with consultative status at IMO, SEA-LNG’s sole focus is the methane decarbonisation pathway, where we can share deep expertise in what it takes to invest in and operationalise alternative marine fuels.
Much of this work is technical, and it decides everything. Default emission factors must reflect reality. The negative emissions biomethane can deliver must be recognised. And robust chain-of-custody and certification rules must ensure a tonne of certified biomethane is trusted wherever it is bunkered. These are not abstractions: they decide whether a Greek owner’s investment is rewarded for the emissions it actually saves.
Steve Esau, Chief Operating Officer, SEA-LNG
The fuel itself must also be there, and, increasingly, it is. Europe’s biomethane production capacity reached 8.2 billion cubic metres a year by mid-2026, up 17% in twelve months. Producers are looking for long-term, high-volume markets, and deep-sea shipping is exactly that. SEA-LNG is working with the biogas industry associations in Europe and North America to connect this growing supply with maritime demand.
This is what a coalition can do that no single owner can. SEA-LNG was founded in 2016 to bring the whole value chain together (fuel producers, engine builders, class societies, ports and shipowners) behind one practical pathway. Ten years on, that model is delivering: at the IMO, in Brussels, and with the biomethane industry. The more members of the shipping industry that stand inside the coalition, the stronger and more credible its voice is. Greek owners have the fleet, the market knowledge and the commercial stake to shape this pathway, not merely comply with it.
Greek owners have already committed. The orders are on the books, biomethane volumes are climbing, e-methane projects are taking shape, and the regulations are moving in the right direction. Backed by its members, SEA-LNG will keep pressing at the IMO and in the EU, keep insisting on rules that reflect the evidence, and keep working to facilitate the biomethane and e-methane supply chains. We welcome more of the Greek fleet alongside us as we do.
The methane pathway has proven to be practical and realistic through its first decade. The second will be about scaling, moving beyond liner trades and expanding into the tramp sector. For Greek shipping, and for the fuel that will power it in 2050 and beyond, the direction of travel is clear.
Source: By Steve Esau, Chief Operating Officer, SEA-LNG
