According to the 2050 Marine Forecast by classification society Det Norske Veritas, 51.3% of the current global order book will be ready to use alternative fuels or batteries. Specifically, 40.3% of that order book will use LNG as fuel, 8.01% methanol, 2.24% LPG, and 0.8% batteries. Currently, only 6.52% of the fleet is equipped with these technologies.
Article from magazine no. 67 – December 2023
To reach the goal of zero emissions by 2050, maritime transport would need between 30 and 40% of its production capacity to be alternative fuels by 2030.
A pragmatic and coordinated roadmap
To achieve their goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, all cruise ship owners are following a roadmap focused on four priorities, which are implemented in a pragmatic and coordinated manner:
• Continuous improvement of the energy efficiency of its ships, through an ambitious R&D policy.
• Optimization of fleet operations, mainly through the use of data and artificial intelligence, as well as the improvement of vessel hydrodynamics and the optimization of routes and speeds.
• Choose transition solutions with available technological solutions, generally based on the use of ships powered by liquefied natural gas.
• Develop a supply chain for new zero-carbon technologies, first with liquefied natural gas, and later with other environmentally friendly fuels.
The industry's commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 was announced in early 2022 and is in line with the target set by the Paris Agreement. It is also supported by the interim target of reducing carbon emissions by 40% (compared to 2008 levels) by 2030, in line with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) initial Greenhouse Gas Reduction Strategy.
Carnival Corp., a pioneer in the use of LNG.
At the beginning of the last decade, Carnival Corporation began to develop its environmental strategy. And like many companies at that time, it faced a question: how do we maintain our leadership in the constantly growing cruise market while simultaneously reducing the negative impacts of our operations?
In 2015, Carnival opted to transition to liquefied natural gas (LNG). Why? Simply because LNG was the best (if not the only) solution available at the time to reduce the environmental impact of its ships. On June 15, 2015, Carnival ordered four Helios or XL-class ships powered by LNG: two for Aida, the AidaNova (2018) and AidaCosma (2021), and two for Costa (the Costa Smeralda and the Costa Toscana, launched in 2022), each 184,000 GT and costing around €1 billion. In 2016, the order was expanded to include three additional ships: two for Carnival Cruise Lines (the Mardi Gras and the Carnival Celebration) and one for P&O (the Iona, delivered in 2020). And in 2018, two additional orders arrived: a second ship for P&O (the Arvia, delivered in 2022), and a third ship for Aida. In 2021, Carnival changed its plans, and this last ship will be delivered at the end of 2023 as the Carnival Jubilee for Carnival Cruise Lines.
Cruise lines are seeking partners with LNG supply networks to ensure a successful energy transition.
All the ships in Project Helios have the same MaK engines and identical LNG equipment as the pioneering AidaNova.
On July 23, 2018, another Carnival Group brand, Princess, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Fincantieri for two 175,000 GT LNG-powered ships. These ships, the Sun Princess and its sister ship, the Star Princess, will be delivered in 2024 and 2025. These two ships will have different LNG configurations, as Carnival wants to have other options available in this area.
Carnival Cruise Line's Logistics:
In June 2015, Carnival had to resolve the LNG bunkering issue for its fleet. One of Carnival Corp.'s brands, Aida Cruises, already had an agreement with the multinational Shell, signed in April 2016, to supply LNG to the AidaPrima, which was the first cruise ship in the world to use LNG, but only while in port, as it did not have LNG tanks on board, and only one of its four engines could use that fuel.
This contract was expanded in the fall of 2016 when Carnival Corp. signed an agreement with Shell to supply LNG to the four Helios-class ships destined for its European brands AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises. These ships were delivered between 2018 and 2021, due to delays caused by the pandemic. The AidaNova, the first of the Helios-class ships, consumed LNG for the first time on October 18, 2018, from the barge Cardissa. On December 18, 2018, Santa Cruz de Tenerife became the first Spanish port to witness an LNG refueling, with the same ships involved.
That general agreement allowed each Carnival Corp. brand to negotiate individual LNG supply contracts with Shell as new LNG-powered cruise ships were delivered in the following years. This has indeed happened, and the eight Helios ships currently in operation receive LNG from the Dutch company.
The most significant expansion occurred after Carnival Cruise Line ordered two LNG-powered ships in 2016. Carnival Corp. began searching for a supplier in the United States, the world's leading LNG producer. On November 8, 2017, it signed an agreement with Shell, making the Dutch multinational Carnival's sole supplier in North America, utilizing a facility on Elbe Island, Savannah.
As part of the agreement, Shell committed to creating a distribution network, including the construction of a barge to facilitate the supply. This barge, the Q-Ocean Service, delivered in 2020, was the first of its kind in the United States. Since then, it has supplied LNG almost weekly to the Mardi Gras, during its Saturday stop in Cape Canaveral, after traveling 257 nautical miles; and to the Carnival Celebration, during its Sunday stop in Miami, an additional 207 nautical miles.
These agreements were later extended to supply LNG to P&O's two vessels (Iona and Arvia) during their home port calls in Southampton, thanks to the New Frontier1 barge. This barge usually loads LNG in Rotterdam (265 nautical miles) or Zeebrugge to fill the tanks of P&O's two vessels.
On November 2nd, the agreement between Stabilis Solutions and Carnival was made public, whereby Stabilis will supply LNG to the Carnival Jubilee, the ninth and final ship in the Helios series, at its home port of Galveston. Stabilis will make deliveries from its own liquefaction facility in Texas during the two-year contract. The contract can be extended for up to two additional years at Carnival Corp.'s request. For its part, the port of Galveston also aims to become a leading LNG bunkering hub.
Royal Caribbean
's energy transition is not as broad or deep as that undertaken by Carnival. The prototype Royal Caribbean used for its energy transition was the Icon class, of which two units were ordered in 2016. At that time, many details about these ships were still unknown, but Royal Caribbean made it clear that they would be powered by LNG and equipped with fuel cells. 2019 was another pivotal year in Royal Caribbean's energy transition, as it ordered a third sister ship of the Icon class.
In 2019, Royal Caribbean decided to expand the Oasis series with a sixth ship that, unlike the previous five, would be equipped with engines capable of running on LNG. Once again, the ease of adapting a mega cruise ship project to this new fuel is evident. The result will be seen next year: the Utopia of the Seas, which will be the culmination of one of the most successful cruise ship designs, the Oasis series, of which six ships have been delivered.
These two Royal Caribbean prototypes have the same Wartsila engines.
On June 14, 2022, it was announced that Eagle LNG Partners had signed a contract with Royal Caribbean Group to supply LNG to its ships starting in late 2023, with the arrival of the Icon of the Seas. Eagle LNG has chartered the LNG carrier Coral Favia to fulfill this agreement. The liquefied gas will be shipped from Eagle LNG's Jacksonville facility, which is specially equipped for LNG bunkering.
Another brand in the group, Silversea Cruises, will have two LNG-powered ships. The first, the Silver Nova, used LNG on November 4th in Gibraltar, but in this case from a different supplier, Peninsula. Its ship, the Levante LNG, arrived in Gibraltar last September and received its license to use LNG in October. The Levante LNG, with a capacity of 12,500 m³, made its debut with this operation.
MSC Cruises
One year after Carnival Corp, MSC Cruises realized its desire to begin its environmental transition to zero emissions by adopting LNG as fuel for the new ships in its fleet.
Its first step toward this energy transition was taken on April 6, 2016, with the order of four World Class ships (two firm orders, plus two options) powered by LNG. The first, the 205,700 GT MSC World Europa, became the company's largest and cost around $1.255 billion. The second, the MSC World America, is currently in an advanced stage of construction and will be delivered in 2024. The next two sister ships, whose construction was confirmed this past fall, will arrive in 2025 and 2027.
In 2018, MSC Cruises decided to expand the Bellissima series with a fifth ship that, unlike the previous four, would be powered by LNG. On a vessel of this size (181,541 GT), adapting the project to this new requirement was relatively straightforward, and the result was the MSC Euribia, delivered this past summer. According to MSC, the ship will emit 19% less greenhouse gas emissions per passenger per day than its sister ships, which use conventional fuels. This represents a 44% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per passenger per day compared to a ship built just ten years ago.
These two MSC Cruiser prototypes have the same Wartsila engines and identical LNG equipment.
Of the four major cruise liners, MSC Cruises has been the only one to continue investing in LNG after the pandemic, in this case for its subsidiary Explora Journeys. On July 4, 2022, MSC Cruises and Fincantieri signed an agreement whereby the third and fourth Explora ships would be converted to run on LNG, requiring them to be lengthened by 19 meters, at an additional cost of €120 million per ship, and delaying their delivery to 2026 and 2027, respectively. The fifth and sixth ships in the series, in addition to LNG, will be equipped with a 6,000 kW fuel cell and will be delivered in 2027 and 2028. With seven ships, MSC Cruises is the second largest operator of LNG-powered cruise ships after Carnival Corp.
MSC Cruises' LNG Logistics:
On March 25, 2021, Total and MSC Cruises signed an agreement whereby the French energy company would supply approximately 45,000 tons of LNG per year to the Swiss cruise liner's ships in Marseille. At the time, Total was the leading LNG bunkering company in France and held a 10% global market share.
Furthermore, the contract was promoted by Annick Girardin, the French Minister of the Navy, who declared his satisfaction "that two large companies were collaborating on their ecological transition.".
Total intended to supply MSC Cruises with LNG in the Mediterranean via ship-to-ship bunkering in Marseille, using its second LNG bunkering vessel, the Gas Vitality, delivered in 2022. This vessel is currently the largest of its type, uses its own LNG as propulsion fuel, and has tanks with a capacity of 18,600 m³. It has a sister ship, the Gas Agility, based in Rotterdam.
On April 22, 2023, the Gas Vitality refueled the MSC World Europa in Marseille for the first time. On that occasion, it supplied 2,500 m³ of LNG, while onboard operations continued as normal. Since then, the MSC World Europa has refueled with LNG from the Gas Vitality in Marseille almost every Saturday, without any notable incidents.
MSC Cruises' second LNG-powered ship was the MSC Euribia, which its owner chose to deploy to the Norwegian fjords destination, sailing from the German port of Kiel. To address LNG bunkering needs, a contract between MSC and Gasum for the supply of LNG to the MSC Euribia was made public on June 15, 2023. This document also included a long-term letter of intent between the two companies for the supply of e-LNG, produced using renewable energy.
With this agreement, MSC secures access to e-LNG, which is produced using hydrogen, created by electrolysis with renewable energy, and captured CO2.
MSC Euribia recently demonstrated that carbon-neutral cruises are now possible, following a historic first voyage with zero net greenhouse gas emissions. The ship sailed for four days (between June 3 and 8) from Saint-Nazaire to Copenhagen, using only bio-LNG. MSC Cruises purchased more than 400 tons of bio-LNG from Gasum to showcase its commitment to renewable fuels and energy transition measures, achieving this pioneering voyage with zero net greenhouse gas emissions. On this voyage, MSC Euribia consumed 43 tons less biogas than the mathematical model had predicted.
During the winter, the MSC Euribia will discontinue its fjord itinerary and instead offer a seven-night North Sea cruise until April 2025. To address the ship's LNG bunkering needs for this new itinerary, MSC Cruises and Shell signed an agreement on October 19th, under which Shell will supply LNG to the MSC Euribia. The first bunkering took place in Rotterdam in November.
MSC Cruises has invested over €3 billion to date in three LNG-powered ships: MSC World Europa, MSC Euribia, and MSC World America (2025). Pier Francesco Vago, Executive Chairman of MSC Cruises, stated, “LNG is an important step forward in our ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This fuel is in transition, and our ships are ready to make the switch to carbon-neutral bio-LNG and, eventually, to synthetic e-LNG as they become available in reasonable quantities, as part of our long-term decarbonization journey.”.
This agreement was also very important for Shell, as it secured a second major client in the cruise industry. With Carnival Corp and MSC Cruises as clients, Shell demonstrates its strength as an LNG supplier, capable of supporting companies of this scale on their path to zero emissions, thanks to its extensive LNG supply network.
Disney
ordered two ships from Meyer Werft, providing almost no technical details. That contract included an option for a third ship, which was confirmed on July 16, 2017. At that time, it was made public that all three would use LNG as fuel.
With the use of LNG and other technical advances, this series of Disney Cruise Line ships will be 30% more efficient, and will emit 20% less greenhouse gases than their predecessors.
Their LNG supplier is SeaSide LNG, which entered the LNG bunkering business in 2018 with no prior experience in the market. Taking significant operational risks, they opted to supply LNG from Jacksonville, where they had a small facility capable of producing 1,360 cubic meters of LNG per day, to Florida ports. Their initial target was Cape Canaveral (100 miles away), where their first customer, Disney Cruise Lines, was to base its first LNG-powered ship, the Disney Wish, after its delivery in 2022.
He had to create his own shipping company, Polaris New Energy, which commissioned the Clean Canaveral barge from Fincantieri. When it was delivered in March 2022, it was the largest LNG barge built and operated in the USA, with a capacity of 5,500 m3. The order included a second, sister barge, also named Clean Canaveral, which was delivered this fall.
On November 8, 2023, another step in Seaside LNG's expansion was announced: its arrival in Galveston. Seaside LNG reached an LNG supply agreement with Carnival Corp. that will allow it to service the first LNG-powered cruise ship based in Galveston, Texas, the Carnival Jubilee. Seaside LNG will make its first LNG delivery to the Carnival Jubilee in December 2023.
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