This confirms the success of the Port’s strategy of bringing the most environmentally friendly vessels to the Catalan capital. The LNG-powered cruise ships belong to the companies Aida, Costa, P&O and MSC. Almost a decade ago, the Port of Barcelona opted for LNG due to its benefits compared to traditional fuels.
The successful bunkering of the ZIM SAMMY OFER container vessel with LNG took place at Kingston Freeport Terminal Limited (KFTL) on March 26. With this milestone, Kingston is now a new LNG bunkering location for Shell, expanding its global LNG network to 16 locations in 11 countries. To date, Shell has already achieved +1,000 safe ship-to-ship bunkering operations.
SEA-LNG recognizes the importance of continuing to drive global infrastructure build-out to improve availability of LNG bunkering to the rapidly growing global LNG-fueled fleet. The recent addition of Énestas to its membership supports this drive. In January 2023, LNG was available at 185 ports worldwide with a further 50 facilities planned by 2025.
The M/V Seaboard Blue became the first cargo vessel to be bunkered at PortMiami using LNG as a fuel. With its Q4000 bunker barge, Shell filled Seaboard Marine’s vessel with LNG prior to its inaugural southbound sailing to Honduras and Guatemala. It was retrofitted in 2017 and was the world’s first container ship converted from conventional diesel propulsion to LNG.
The 175,500-ton Sun Princess is the largest ship built so far in Italy, as well as the first LNG-fueled cruise ship ever built by Fincantieri, and the first dual-fuel vessel powered primarily by LNG to enter Princess’ fleet. It will be delivered in Q1 2024 starting the Sphere class, which includes a sister-ship to be delivered in 2025, and will accommodate 4,300 guests.
Shell Western LNG B.V will supply LNG to Hapag-Lloyd’s ultra large dual-fuel container vessels. Bunkering for these 12 new vessels is expected to start in the second half of 2023 and LNG will be supplied in the Port of Rotterdam. This is another important step for Hapag-Lloyd to decarbonize its fleet in line with its goal of becoming net zero carbon by 2045.
Coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Green Ray project has secured European Union funding (around €7 million from Horizon Europe) to develop solutions minimizing methane slip from LNG-fueled marine engines. The initiative will develop technologies for low-pressure dual-fuel engines as well as a novel aftertreatment concept.
As an LNG-powered ship, MSC Euribia marks another step forward for MSC Cruises in substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions. LNG plays a key role in the journey towards climate change mitigation and will reduce CO emissions by up to 25% on MSC Euribia compared to standard fuels while also virtually eliminating other air emissions.
The joint study will be conducted as part of a bio-LNG technology research and development program approved by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and promoted by Air Water. The goal is to use this renewable fuel, derived from cattle manure, on the MOL Group’s coastal LNG-powered vessel in the first half of FY2023.
Wärtsilä will supply dual fuel engines and high-performance axial flow waterjets for a new high-speed ro-pax ferry. The ship, the ‘Margarita Salas’, is being built at Astilleros Armon Gijon in Spain on behalf of the Spanish shipping company Baleària. LNG is currently the cleanest and most mature marine fuel available within the industry’s decarbonization focus.
