10 NOV 2017: Carnival Cruise Line announced an agreement with Shell to be its supplier of marine liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power North America’s first fully LNG-powered cruise ships. Under this framework agreement, Shell will supply Carnival Cruise Line with fuel for its two new LNG-powered ships expected to launch in 2020 and 2022 and to be homeported in North America.
As part of the agreement, the two ships, built with a next-generation “green cruising” ship design, will be fueled through Shell’s LNG Bunker Barge (LBB) – a project announced earlier this week as part of Shell’s strategic plan to develop a global LNG bunkering network.
The ocean-going LBB, which is designed to support growing cruise line demand for LNG as a marine fuel, will be the first of its kind in the US and will allow these ships to refuel with LNG at ports along the southern U.S. East Coast.
The two new Carnival Cruise Line vessels will be fully powered by LNG both while in port and at sea –that will improve air quality with cleaner emissions and produce more efficient ships.
The 180,000-ton ships will be the largest ships in Carnival Cruise Line’s fleet with an approximate passenger capacity of 5,200 based on double occupancy.
This agreement builds on the partnership established between Carnival Corporation’s AIDA Cruises brand and Shell in April of 2016 to supply its AIDAprima ship with LNG to power the vessel while docked. AIDAprima is the first cruise ship in the world to use LNG while in port, leading to a major reduction in emissions.
In 2016 Carnival signed an agreement with Shell to supply LNG for the first of its next-generation LNG ships from its European AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises brands. These two ships will be the world’s first fully LNG-powered cruise ships when they enter service in 2018 and 2019.
In 2015 with AIDAsol becoming the first cruise ship in the world to be supplied with power by an LNG hybrid barge, which also saw major benefits while in port.
In total, Carnival Corporation has agreements in place with leading German and Finnish shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku to build seven LNG-powered cruise ships across four of its 10 global cruise brands with delivery dates between 2018 and 2022 – two for AIDA Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2018 and 2021, two for Costa Cruises with expected delivery dates in 2019 and 2021, one for P&O Cruises UK with an expected delivery date in 2020 and two for Carnival Cruise Line with expected delivery dates in 2020 and 2022.