JAX LNG, TOTE Maritime’s LNG supplier, has received approval for their LNG facility and barge-to-ship bunkering Jacksonville, Florida - TOTE Maritime congratulates JAX LNG, LLC on reaching another critical milestone.  JAX LNG has received a Letter of Acceptance (LOA) from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) for the operation of their waterfront LNG facility and the approval to conduct barge-to-ship LNG bunkering operations with TOTE Maritime’s Marlin Class ships and its LNG barge, Clean Jacksonville.  Entering service in late 2015 and early 2016 respectively, to date the Isla Bella and Perla del Caribe have used an innovative truck-to-ship bunkering operation. Barge-to-ship LNG bunkering is scheduled to commence in early 2018. In October 2015, TOTE Maritime and its partner JAX LNG received their first LOA from the USCG establishing an industry first landside LNG bunkering facility in the Port of Jacksonville.  Since then, the Marlin Class vessels have safely received more than 18,000,000 gallons of LNG through the truck-to-ship bunkering process, demonstrating the ability to safely transfer LNG time and time again. “TOTE Maritime is committed to safety above all else. Thanks to the commitment of our partner, JAX LNG, we have developed strong standards for landside LNG bunkering that will continue to be the hallmark of our barge-to-ship bunkering operations” noted Peter Keller, Executive Vice President of TOTE.    TOTE has worked with a number of partners to develop state-of-the-art operations that are currently in use at the Port of Jacksonville. In addition to JAX LNG, TOTE has collaborated with the United States Coast Guard, specifically Sector Jacksonville and the Liquefied Gas Carrier National Center of Expertise; Jacksonville Fire Department, Port of Jacksonville, American Bureau of Shipping and numerous vendors and trade associations. This collaboration has been central to the success of the truck-to-ship bunkering operations and will play a critical role in the next phase. Tim Nolan, President of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico highlighted “TOTE’s Marlin Class vessels are the first containerships in the world to be powered by LNG. This required groundbreaking LNG bunkering operations that have helped set national as well as global standards. Our ability to safely and efficiently introduce these ships into the Puerto Rico trade so that the people of both Florida and Puerto Rico could realize the environmental benefits of this superior maritime fuel was directly tied to the support and partnerships developed along the way.”