(Yicai Global) June 4 -- China is planning to build its first offshore liquefied natural gas bunkering center, targeting international vessels to stop by and refuel in Shenzhen.

Yantian Port Group, state-owned PetroChina, and the local government have penned an agreement to build a bunkering point, the port operator said in a statement posted on its website. So far only Singapore and Amsterdam have similar facilities.

In January, the International Maritime Organization's updated global sulfur emission restrictions came into effect, which should mean that the clean-burning LNG will gradually become the mainstream maritime fuel, the port added.

After the first phase of the project is finished, the annual capacity should be 230,000 tons per year, valued at CNY1.2 billion (USD168.5 million), according to the statement. Eventually, the capacity should be hiked to two million tons, worth CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion).

Southern China's Yantian Port, located 24 kilometers from Shenzhen, made up more than 50 percent of all Shenzhen ports' throughput last year with its 13 million twenty-foot equivalent units.

Editor: Emmi Laine