Maersk has ordered 19 container vessels with dual-fuel engines, which will allow them to be powered by green methanol as well as conventional fuels.

The first of the new ships will start sailing this year, with the remainder to be delivered by 2025.

The Danish company wants a quarter of its sea cargo to be powered by green fuels by 2030 as it aims for net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040.

Most international shipping lines that visit Australia refuel with marine diesel in Singapore in a process known as “bunkering.”

But methanol takes up more space in storage tanks than marine diesel, so ships using green methanol will either need to add more storage, or fill up in Oceania as well as Singapore, Mr Mooney said.

“We’re really well positioned because of the proximity of production of the new fuel source,” he said. “It doesn’t necessarily make sense to transport the fuel all the way to Singapore when you could actually do your bunkering in Melbourne.”

Australia is better positioned than Singapore to develop methanol refuelling hubs due to its hydrogen developments, Mr Mooney said.

Green methanol can be made by using renewable electricity to create hydrogen and then combining it with carbon from biomass such as wood chips. It could potentially be “a great export opportunity” for Victoria and Australia, he said.

The group that signed the MOU had its first meeting to agree on objectives, but is expected to take several years to set up supply chains if plans to transport and store green methanol proceed.

The port needs to understand how much space would be required to store green methanol and figure out how to refuel ships using a bunker barge.

It is used by several dozen shipping lines and has almost 3000 vessel visits annually.

Global demand for container shipping services had “dropped off” after soaring during the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Mooney said. “Certainly with economic confidence being down globally, that’s affecting volumes.”

Future volumes would depend on how much money consumers spent and the financial impact of interest rate increases, he added.

“We’d be hopeful that in the back half of the current calendar year that volumes start to get back to normal.”

The head of Maersk’s Oceania business, My Therese Blank, declined to comment on whether the shipping group was holding talks with other Australian ports on green methanol refuelling arrangements, but said the partnership with the Port of Melbourne was “the most advanced across the Oceania region.”

Maersk has been making green methanol refuelling deals with other ports globally, including signing an agreement with the Shanghai International Port group in March.

Ms Blank said it was “imperative” to establish port bunkering infrastructure for methanol to decarbonise the shipping industry.

“Methanol engines are available in the market, so there is already experience with the safe operation of methanol in marine conditions,” she said. “Methanol-powered vessels are unquestionably the fastest and least risky way to a scalable green solution for shipping.”