Carnival plumps for LNG

The group said that using LNG to power the ships in port and at sea will eliminate emissions of soot particles and sulphur oxides. It’s unclear as yet which routes the new cruisers will operate but Carnival said that it has already addressed the problem of refuelling. LNG will be stored on-board the new vessels and used to generate 100% of the vessels’ power at sea.

A Carnival spokesperson told GreenPort: “There is some LNG infrastructure in place, but we fully expect this will be accommodated by the time these ships are built. In fact, we believe this announcement – and our decision to be early adopters of LNG – will be a catalyst for the industry and the vendor community to move forward in this space.”

The newbuild contract with Meyer Werft is part of a larger agreement with shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Fincantieri S.p.A for nine new ship orders between 2019 and 2022.

Two of the newbuild ships will be manufactured for AIDA Cruises at Meyer Werft’s shipyard in Papenburg, Germany.

In addition, Carnival pointed out that its newest AIDA ship being delivered later this year will also have LNG capabilities.

Carnival has been working hard to improve its fleet’s efficiency over the last few years. By the end of 2014, it had improved its overall fuel efficiency by 2%, which when compared to 2007, gives a cost saving of around $2.5bn. Fuel is the company’s single largest expense.