EU Launches €2.9B Plan to Kickstart Green Transport Fuels, But Industry Warns Speed Is Critical

Mike Schuler November 10, 2025

The European Commission launched its Sustainable Transport Investment Plan last week, setting an ambitious roadmap to transform the aviation and waterborne transport sectors through renewable and low-carbon fuels. The plan seeks to mobilize at least €2.9 billion by the end of 2027 to address what officials describe as an urgent need to scale up alternative fuel production.

The stakes are significant. To meet targets established under the ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime regulations, the EU will need approximately 20 million tonnes of sustainable alternative fuels by 2035, requiring an estimated €100 billion in market investments.

“Our Sustainable Transport Investment Plan is a decisive step towards a sustainable future. It’s not just about cutting emissions – it’s about building a stronger, more competitive and resilient Europe that leads in sustainable transport,” stated Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism Apostolos Tzitzikostas.

The plan’s short-term measures include €2 billion from InvestEU to remove investment barriers, €300 million through the European Hydrogen Bank for hydrogen production supporting sustainable aviation and maritime fuels, and hundreds of millions more through the Innovation Fund for specific fuel projects.

Industry response has been mixed, with stakeholders praising the framework while emphasizing the need for rapid implementation. Jim Corbett, Environmental Director for Europe at the World Shipping Council, called the plan “a promising first step” but stressed that “the strategy must be taken forward in ways that deliver real impact on maritime decarbonization.”

The World Shipping Council pointed to its own research showing the maritime sector alone could uptake 14.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent of renewable fuels by 2035—representing roughly 70 percent of the Commission’s combined target for aviation and maritime—if proper investment conditions materialize. The organization emphasized that over €150 billion has already been invested in dual-fuel ships ready to run on zero or near-zero fuels by 2030, but these investments will only translate into emissions reductions if renewable fuels become competitively priced.

SEA-LNG welcomed the plan’s recognition of methane-based pathways, including LNG, bio-methane and e-methane. Steve Esau, Chief Operating Officer at SEA-LNG, noted that “policymakers increasingly recognise the need to balance competitiveness with sustainability and to focus on proven practical and realistic solutions that deliver towards decarbonisation today”.

However, environmental groups warned about timing. Transport & Environment acknowledged promising steps to boost e-fuels production but cautioned that action is needed by 2026. Antony Froggatt, senior director for aviation, shipping and energy at T&E, stated: “The plan clearly acknowledges the important role of e-fuels in decarbonising aviation and shipping. For the first time, the EU will develop an effective financial instrument to kickstart production. The EU must now follow through on these commitments if it is to help preserve Europe’s technological leadership in e-fuels.”

The plan is structured around three pillars: a strategic framework identifying investment needs, financing actions with short and medium-term impact to unlock investments, and an external dimension facilitating global production while ensuring fair competition for EU businesses.

In the medium term, the Commission plans to establish an intermediary mechanism connecting fuel producers and buyers to provide revenue certainty and de-risk investments. An eSAF Early Movers Coalition pilot project, launching by year’s end alongside committed Member States, aims to mobilize at least €500 million for synthetic aviation fuel projects.

The STIP follows the IMO’s October failure to adopt a global carbon pricing system for shipping. Member states postponed the Net-Zero Framework vote to October 2026 due to pressure from the Trump Administration and petro-states. The delay pushes enforcement to decade’s end, leaving the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS), combined with the FuelEU Maritime, as the only major carbon-pricing regime for global shipping, reinforcing Europe’s role as de facto climate regulator.

As Europe positions itself to lead the global maritime energy transition, the consensus among industry stakeholders is clear: ambitious targets require equally ambitious and swift implementation to bridge the gap between renewable fuel production capacity and the sector’s decarbonization goals.

https://gcaptain.com/eu-launches-e2-9b-plan-to-kickstart-green-transport-fuels-but-industry-warns-speed-is-critical/

>>23839184

==Are shipowners asking the right questions of clean technology companies?

November 11, 2025

Alex Routledge, CEO of Armada Technologies, writes for Splash today.

Shipping stands at a complex moment in its decarbonisation journey. The IMO’s overall strategy for reaching net zero remains in place, even as the formal adoption of its Net Zero Framework has been delayed. In practice, this pause at the global level seems set to be offset by faster-moving regional measures that will increase commercial and compliance pressure on shipowners. Together they create a landscape where the pressure to act is rising, but certainty about what works remains elusive.

In that context, clean technologies occupy a critical but challenging space. They are essential to decarbonisation, yet their credibility rests on proof that they can deliver beyond trials and into day-to-day operation. There is still pressure to act, but any actions must be measured, proven and practical.

For any system claiming to cut fuel use or emissions, what matters most is how it performs in the real world: in different sea states, across varied vessel types, at a range of speeds and on a variety of trades. Without that depth of validation, even promising innovations risk becoming stalled at the pilot stage. The next phase of clean-technology progress will be defined not by how many solutions are available, but by how consistently they deliver under the full range of conditions that define operations at sea.

Nowhere is this tension more visible than in the field of air lubrication. Two decades of development have only produced approximately 600 systems installed or on order worldwide – progress, but not the kind expected of a proven decarbonisation technology. The question is no longer whether air lubrication works in theory, but why it has yet to convince shipowners at scale and in practice.

Shipowners’ perception of air lubrication stems directly from their experience with first-generation systems. Operators have encountered technology that promises much and may deliver satisfactory performance but only in specific, ‘ideal’ conditions. Beyond these narrowly defined parameters, the same complex mechanical systems demand significant power consumption from compressors that erode net savings, add costs and impose maintenance burdens.

These experiences have left shipowners rightly focused on one question above all others: can the technology sustain performance and deliver measurable benefits in every condition that vessels encounter?

Some second-generation air lubrication technologies tackle these questions and challenges but from a fundamentally different approach. Newer systems can eliminate compressors entirely. For example, our passive air lubrication system (PALS) generates a fine air-water mixture passively through clever utilisation of vessel motion and hydrodynamic flow. In doing so, we remove one of the main power consumption vectors for the technology, increasing the net savings potential.

More broadly, the physics behind this results in air lubrication technology that is applicable to a fundamentally wider section of the global fleet, including finer form vessels, vessels operating in challenging weather conditions and at slower speeds where first-generation systems cannot justify their cost and are operationally compromised.

After twenty years of development, the question is no longer whether air lubrication works in theory, but how it proves its value in practice. For air lubrication to fulfil its potential, performance claims must be validated independently and across the full operating envelope. Shipowners are right to expect this level of scrutiny. They should ask what facilities conducted the testing, how results were measured, who validated them, and whether the data represents the complete range of conditions rather than selected highlights.

More:

https://splash247.com/are-shipowners-asking-the-right-questions-of-clean-technology-companies/

In practice, this pause at the global level seems set to be offset by faster-moving regional measures that will increase commercial and compliance pressure on shipowners. Together they create a landscape where the pressure to act is rising, but certainty about what works remains elusive.

The pressure is coming from politicians. I see crap about "industry wants this" and I'm like, "yeah, because the exhaust scrubbers some lines were forced to install turned out to be high cost and maintenance intensive"

U.S. Military Kills Six More Drug Smuggling Suspects in Boat Strikes

Published Nov 10, 2025 10:25 PM by The Maritime Executive

The U.S. military has carried out two more strikes on suspected drug boats in the Eastern Pacific, according to the Pentagon.

In a statement, the department said that two boats were eliminated, each carrying three male suspects. All were killed in airstrikes in international waters, at no risk to U.S. servicemembers.

The military has now conducted a total of 19 strikes on suspected drug boats, bringing the total number of deceased suspects to 76 people. Two survivors were rescued after a strike in mid-October and returned to Colombia and Ecuador, their respective nations.

The Trump administration describes the targets as "narco-terrorists" or "cartel terrorists," and claims that the boats are "known to our intelligence" to be involved in narcotics smuggling. Anecdotally, reporters who have interviewed relatives and acquaintances of the deceased boat operators have found that most are low-income individuals with limited economic options. Among the dead are commercial drivers, fishermen, laborers, petty criminals, and at least one local crime boss, according to the AP.

The Pentagon has not disclosed the identities of those eliminated in the strikes, if any are known. The majority of the deceased remain unidentified, according to MSNBC, consistent with the secretive nature of smuggling enterprises and the remoteness of the waters where they were killed.

The legality of the strike program has been questioned by political critics, legal experts and even the United Nations' top human rights official. Even if these matters are set aside, there is the more practical matter of efficacy: some smuggling experts question whether the flow of drugs can be stopped with airstrikes on low-level "mules." Even if the attacks make the established boat routes too risky, the loosely-organized South American crime networks have a long history of developing alternatives, like complex container freight strategies and foot traffic.

"I don’t think it’s going to cause the [Jalisco New Generation Cartel] or Sinaloa cartel to say, ‘Wait, this is too dangerous,'" one congressional official told MSNBC. "These guys feed their rivals to tigers. They are not easily intimidated."

https://maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-military-kills-six-more-drug-smuggling-suspects-in-boat-strikes

Sanctions Force Lukoil Into Force Majeure at Giant Iraqi Oilfield

Published Nov 10, 2025 5:39 PM by The Maritime Executive

American sanctions on Russian oil giant Lukoil have forced the company to declare force majeure for its Iraqi operations, taking nearly 10 percent of the nation's entire production offline through the closure of the giant West Qurna-2 oilfield, according to local and international media sources. The move follows the Iraqi government's decision to cancel payments and export loadings for Lukoil over sanctions concerns.

West Qurna-2 is a supergiant 12.9 billion barrel reservoir near the port of Basra, Iraq. It was developed by Lukoil and Statoil (now Equinor) in the 2010s, and currently produces about 480,000 bpd of crude. It is part of the braoder West Qurna Field, one of the largest oilfields in the world (by total recoverable barrels).

Lukoil owns 75 percent of West Qurna-2, and it is the firm's most valuable foreign asset. It had planned to invest billions of dollars to increase the field's output in the years ahead, but given Iraq's strict application of U.S. sanctions on the Russian firm, those plans appear off the table unless there is a change in regulatory circumstances. Iraq has cut off cash payments and in-kind oil allocations to Lukoil, and has reportedly canceled three of the firm's export loadings for the month of November. Lukoil has also reportedly had to lay off its international staff at the West Qurna-2 field, though it has been able to retain its Russian and Iraqi workforce.

If the sanctions situation does not change, local officials told Reuters that Lukoil could exit the field entirely within six months. If the company seeks a buyer for its Iraqi holdings, any would-be purchaser could encounter U.S. compliance difficulties: Russian-linked commodity trader Gunvor was in talks to buy all of Lukoil's international holdings, including West Qurna-2, but backed out after threats of sanctions from the U.S. Treasury Department.

If Lukoil exits the West Qurna-2 field without selling its rights to a successor, it could clear the way for a Western operator to step in, according to Oilprice.com. American, British and French oil majors might all take an interest in West Qurna-2's abundant reserves.

In the meantime, the force majeure declaration will lower Iraq's oil production by about 480,000 barrels per day, about 0.5 percent of the global oil market. Brent futures were largely unaffected, closing at $64 per barrel.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/report-sanctions-force-lukoil-into-force-majeure-at-giant-iraqi-oilfield

Ukraine Hits Port of Tuapse for a Third Time in Long-Range Strike

Published Nov 10, 2025 6:07 PM by The Maritime Executive

Ukrainian forces have conducted another long range drone strike on the port of Tuapse, Russia, the third such attack in as many months. One pier was hit and it is possible that a small product tanker was damaged, according to open source intelligence analysts, though official Russian sources deny that any infrastructure damage occurred.

The port of Tuapse is home to a Rosneft-operated oil terminal, which serves a nearby refinery. It can handle Aframax tankers up to about 110,000 dwt, and it normally exports about 17 million tonnes of crude and refined product per year. It is the second-largest Russian oil port on the Black Sea, after Novorossiysk.

Overnight Sunday, a flotilla of naval drones made a long-range attack run on Tuapse's oil terminal, according to Ukrainian media and military analysts. After reportedly departing the Odesa region and crossing the full width of the Black Sea, the drone force attempted to enter Tuapse. At least two explosions were recorded within the port's harbor in the early hours of Monday morning.

Authorities in Tuapse reported the destruction of four drone boats at sea. Both naval and airborne drones were reported, and anecdotal reports indicate that heavy Flamingo or Neptune cruise missiles may have been deployed as well. Bystander videos from Tuapse show a large crater in the middle of a nearby public beach, and a flattened storage shed - signs of a heavy hit located well inland from where a seaborne drone could strike.

According to Reuters, Russian rail operators have suspended train service to the port of Tuapse because there is not enough capacity to handle the volume. The terminal is reportedly shut down pending repairs, and satellite imaging shows that its oil terminal berths are empty.

Tuapse is far from the only target: Ukraine has hit oil and gas infrastructure across Russia since this summer, and has taken an estimated 20 percent of all Russian refining capacity offline with long-distance drone strikes.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/ukraine-hits-port-of-tuapse-for-a-third-time-in-long-range-strike

>>23839222

>They are also frustrated with the unwillingness of Republican senators to speak out on Schiff’s behalf.”

Well yeah, they know that supporting Pencil Neck will get them in hot water with the voters that put them in office