A Carnival cruiseship newbuilding has been supplied with LNG as bunkers by Shell in a first LNG ship-to-ship refuelling in France shortly after AET's new dynamic positioning shuttle tanker was fuelled in the Netherlands.
The 183,900-gt newbuilding Costa Smeralda, which has delivered from Finland's Meyer Turku yard, was bunkered in Marseille on the night of 4-5 May, according to France’s Le Marin news site.
The vessel is shown with Anthony Veder’s 7,500-cbm Coral Methane (built 2009) alongside. The small LNG carrier is on charter to Shell and has been working on LNG bunkering operations.
Carnival has previously said that Costa Smeralda will be based and regularly bunkered in Barcelona, running cruises to Italy and France. But with cruiseship operations at a halt worldwide due to the Covid-19 pandemic it is unclear where the ship will be idled.
In Rotterdam Shell supplied the first LNG bunkers to AET’s DP shuttle tanker 123,000-dwt newbuilding Eagle Blane.
Eagle Blane, along with sistership Eagle Balder, was ordered against seven-year charters with Norway’s Equinor.
It was supplied with around 1,480-cbm of LNG in a 15-hour operation arranged by Shell LNG Trading last month, AET said. This included the time taken to cool down the ship’s bunker tanks and systems.,
Shell’s own LNG bunker vessel, the 6,500-cbm Cardissa (built 2017) is shown alongside Eagle Blane.
AET said the bunkers filled 87% of Eagle Blane’s total LNG tank capacity, which will allow the vessel to sail for approximately 3,500 nautical miles.
Eagle Blane will be operating in oilfields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf of the North Sea, Norwegian Sea and the southern Barents Sea, as well as on the UK Continental Shelf.
AET president and chief executive captain Rajalingam Subramaniam said both of the shuttle tanker newbuildings are expected to emit the least CO2 per tonne mile of cargo carried in the world.
“Our goal was always to develop vessels that really push the boundaries in what is possible in dynamic positioning operations, and to prove the value of LNG dual-fuel solutions in the energy shipping segment,” he said.
