Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has pledged his Fortescue iron ore giant will start retrofitting the capesize bulk carriers it uses with zero-carbon engines “by the end of the decade”.
The Australian billionaire and clean fuel evangelist said all the group’s new ships would be ammonia-capable and that planning was underway to retrofit others by 2030.
“All new ships will be ammonia-capable. And we’re not going to bother with dual fuel and all of that crap,” Forrest said.
“We realise we’ve got a job in front of us. We’ve got to make renewable fuel fully licensed. So all that planning is on its way,” led by Fortescue’s Andrew Hoare.
The Fortescue chairman was speaking in London on board Fortescue’s 2,874-gt Green Pioneer (built 2010), an offshore support vessel it has converted into the world’s first ammonia dual-fuel vessel.
Forrest declined to give a precise date for the upgrade work but said the company was committed. “I want to start retrofitting our ship before the end of the decade. And we’re prototyping this as you can see. Everything’s on the deck.”
After arriving in Southampton from Singapore last week, the prototype ship was given the UK’s first port state control inspection for an ammonia-powered vessel, before moving to a dock in Canary Wharf in the east London business district.
The trip — which was delayed by a year because of the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea — comes on the eve of critical negotiations among International Maritime Organization member nations next month over financial measures to drive the uptake of low and zero-carbon fuels.
Forrest urged IMO members to agree a $100-per-tonne carbon tax to send a strong market signal to support the energy transition.
“I’m saying give some market signal across the world, just a basic carbon tax,” he said. “Just to get us going quickly, level the playing field, a $100-a-tonne carbon [tax]. Simple.”
Forrest added: “Send out a market signal that you want a better source of energy, and you want one which will never let you down, one which is democratically available across the planet. This ship is a trial.”
He said that proposals in front of the IMO that would allow LNG’s continued use as a transition fuel is “greenwashing”. “Go to ‘real zero’. Real zero is available,” he explained.
Last July, Fortescue scaled back its green hydrogen plans and cut 700 jobs, blaming high energy prices for the strategy setback.
He said the economics of hydrogen do not add up on the Green Pioneer. “Hydrogen right now, ladies and gentlemen, doesn’t compete with the market.”
In February, Fortescue reported first-half profit fell 53% to $1.55bn as iron ore demand from China weakened. Its Pilbara mines in north-western Australia are on track to ship 190m to 200m tonnes of iron ore in this financial year.
According to a video presentation at the event, Fortescue operates a fleet of 80 vessels to carry iron ore, a fleet it believes will be powered by knowledge obtained from the Green Pioneer.
Fortescue has invested $6.2bn in decarbonisation projects, with what it claims will be an eight-year payback.
Forrest’s conviction that renewable energy will win in the long run as the cheapest and cleanest form of energy remains undiminished, even with the impact of Donald Trump in the White House.
“All I’m saying is let economics rule. Let the marketplace rule,” Forrest said.
