A year of massive commissioning of LNG powered vessels and LNG bunkering facilities

What we heard about LNG as a ship fuel before? 

This type of fuel is for harbor fleet that can be frequently bunkered at the home port. 

This type of fuel is for liner vessels, which regularly and frequently call at ports with available infrastructure for LNG bunkering. 



There is no space for placing cryogenic LNG tanks onboard of the vessels with deck space used for cargo operations (like, for example, dry cargo vessels). Placing LNG tanks would be possible only by reducing the size of the cargo spaces.

2017 is the year of massive commissioning of LNG powered vessels of different types

2 x 26.000 tons DWT bulkers for ESL Shipping

2 x 26.000 tons DWT bulkers for ESL Shipping

Project Forward – design of deep sea bulkers with a DWT ranging between 82,000 and 210,000mt developed by Shell + ABS + Wärtsilä + Deltamarin + GTT + Arista Shipping. 

2 pure car and truck carriers of 4000 cars capacity for UECC

2 pure car and truck carriers of 4000 cars capacity for UECC

4 X 1,400 TEU LNG-fuelled container ships + 200 LNG-powered trucks

CONTAINERSHIPS invests over €150 million to build a logistics chain entirely based on LNG (4 X 1,400 TEU LNG-fuelled container ships + 200 LNG-powered trucks + LNG terminal network). 

Containerships secured funding of €16.9 mill from the European Union, as well as an additional €5 mill from the Nordic Environment Finance Corporation (NEFCO). 

EU funding will be allocated for ship investments (€10.7 million) and development of a European LNG terminal network €6.2 million).

DEME built 2 LNG-fueled trailing suction hopper dredgers

4 x 15.000 dwt LNG powered product tankers for Terntank

4 x 15.000 dwt LNG powered asphalt and chemical tankers for Groupe Desgagnés

Sovcomflot ordered 4 + 5 + 5 LNG powered Aframax type tankers to be time chartered out to Shell

Shell’s self commitment to LNG bunkering

25 % of Shell controlled vessels to run on LNG by 2025

(25% of approx. 1500 vessels under Shell’s control ≈ 375 ships)

Shell ahead of others moved towards development of infrastructure for LNG bunkering service

Shell’s 6,500 cubic meters LNG bunkering vessel "Cardissa" entered service in September 2017 in Rotterdam

Competitors do also actively develop their LNG bunkering distribution networks

ENGIE Zeebrugge - 5000 cbm LNG bunkering ship started bunkering operations in June 2017

5,800-cbm first European-built LNG bunker "Coralius" started STS bunkering operations in Scandinavia for Skangas in June 2017

Lloyd’s Register’s forecasts for new-build LNG-fueled vessels and LNG bunker demand growth for deep-sea trades through 2025 (base-, high- and low-case)

The base case forecasts 653 new-build LNG vessels and 24 million tons of annual LNG bunker demand. 

Lloyd’s Register’s base case for projected global LNG versus heavy fuel oil (HFO) bunker consumption for all deep sea ship types through 2025

Large transocean vessels are being ordered with dual fuel engines and ready for quick retrofitting (LNG Ready)

 6 х 20,000 TEU LNG-ready container carriers for Mitsui O.S.K. Lines

Historically wide use of new technology starts in about 25 years (vessel’s mean lifetime) after its introduction