10,000 Refuels Later, Canada's LNG Bet Is Paying Off

FortisBC's 10,000th LNG marine refuel marks a decade of quiet bets on cleaner shipping fuel at Vancouver

1 May 2026

On the water, progress rarely announces itself. Yet at the Port of Vancouver in late April 2026, FortisBC Energy quietly completed its 10,000th liquefied natural gas refuelling of a marine vessel. The number matters less as a milestone than as a record of what sustained, unglamorous investment can achieve.

FortisBC began bunkering operations in 2016. Since then, cruise ships, car carriers, container vessels, and ferries have all drawn fuel from a network supplied by the company's Tilbury liquefaction plant in Delta, British Columbia. What made growth possible was a practical innovation: a proprietary truck-to-ship delivery system, built with Seaspan Ferries and BC Ferries, that loads LNG directly onto vessels via open vehicle decks. The Seaspan Swift was the first North American ship fuelled this way. No fixed pier infrastructure was required at every stop, which lowered costs and raised flexibility.

The past year brought a series of firsts, each incremental but collectively significant. Canada's first ship-to-ship LNG transfer took place in English Bay. A car carrier received its first LNG delivery at Vancouver. An Alaska-bound cruise ship was fuelled with LNG for the first time. Mike Leclair, FortisBC's vice president for major projects and LNG, called the milestone "a testament to the innovation and long-term commitment" behind the company's approach.

The timing is not incidental. Canada is trying to reduce its dependence on the American market by doubling exports to other buyers within a decade. Alexa Young of the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority noted that LNG has become the first alternative marine fuel available in meaningful quantities for the sector, with cruise, cargo, and container operators all adopting it. FortisBC is now developing greater ship-to-ship capacity to meet demand from transpacific operators.

None of this resolves the deeper tension in LNG's future. The fuel burns cleaner than conventional marine oil but still produces carbon, and its long-term place in a decarbonising shipping industry remains contested. British Columbia may be building a model for commercially scaled marine bunkering. Whether that model outlasts the energy transition is a question a single milestone cannot answer.