Total to Supply LNG to MSC Cruises' Ships in Marseille
French oil and gas major Total has struck a deal with cruise line MSC Cruises to supply around 45,000 tons per year of LNG to MSC Cruises’ upcoming LNG-powered cruise ships to make calls in the port of Marseille (France).
According to the statement on Thursday, MSC Cruises’ LNG-powered vessels will be amongst the most technologically advanced cruise ships in the world, bringing a range of environmental innovations to the market, including a 50-kilowatt, LNG-powered solid oxide fuel cell technology project "that offers a potential to further reduce significantly greenhouse gas emissions compared to a conventional LNG engine."
Total will bunker MSC Cruises’ LNG-powered cruise ships sailing on Mediterranean routes by ship-to-ship transfer, using its second LNG bunker vessel currently under construction. This vessel will itself use LNG as propulsion fuel and integrate a complete re-liquefaction of the boil-off gas.
Pierfrancesco Vago, MSC Cruises’ Executive Chairman, said: “This agreement represents a further step in our ongoing journey towards continuously reducing our environmental footprint, for which LNG is currently a crucial component. As we prepare to launch our first of three upcoming LNG-powered cruise ships in 2022, through this key agreement Marseille will become our hub in the Mediterranean for the refuelling of our latest-generation and most environmentally advanced ships.”
Alexis Vovk, President, Marketing & Services at Total, declared: “We are proud to be developing the first LNG bunker supply chain in France, at the port of Marseille-Fos, together with shipping industry leaders such as MSC Cruises with whom we nurture a long-lasting partnership worldwide in the field of bunkering services. Total will continue to step up investments in LNG bunkering to ultimately reach its target of serving more than 10% of the global market. By doing so, we will continue to accompany the energy transition of the shipping industry and the reduction of carbon emissions of our customers, in line with our Climate ambition to get to Net Zero by 2050, together with society.”
"Used as a marine fuel, LNG sharply reduces emissions from ships, resulting in a significant improvement in air quality, particularly for communities in coastal areas and port cities. This agreement therefore impacts positively not only the city where LNG bunkering will take place, Marseille, but also all the ports where the cruise ships will make their future call around the Mediterranean Sea," Total said.
By 2022, Total will operate two 18,600-m³ LNG bunkering vessels in Rotterdam and Marseille and share the use of a third bunker vessel in Singapore. In February 2021, the company also received a license from the Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) to supply LNG in the Port of Singapore from 2022.