Earlier this month, Brittany Ferries has announced it has chosen Total to bunker its new LNG-powered ship, which is expected to be ordered in the coming weeks.
Antoine H.
During the annual meeting of the "LNG Bunkering Summit" that took place in Amsterdam in early-February, Brittany Ferries and Total has announced they have undertaken negotiations on the purpose of signing an agreement to bunker the company's new ship; for which a letter of intent has been signed with the Flensburger shipyard in late-December 2016, and which is expected to be introduced in 2019.
This new ship is to be ordered to serve the Ouistreham - Portsmouth route. However, neither of both harbours is equipped with LNG-bunkering facilities. Therefore, it means in order to bunker its latest ship, Brittany Ferries would have to charter, as currently for HFO-bunkering, a skiff to bring LNG from the closest harbour where such facilities are provided.
Therefore, in order to reduce the bunkering costs, both companies will design ISO containers that could be loaded aboard the ship during turnarounds, and brought to the harbours by road. This will make the new ship more profitable, as this solution is less expensive than bunkering using a skiff. Besides, this solution means the fuel tanks are unlikely to be located within the ship hull (as it was planned with Pegasis), enabling not also to free a greater lineage for freight at deck 02, but also to reduce the ship's building cost. Indeed, these containers will have to be easily reachable. However, this is to be confirmed by a later announcement.