Finland’s Meyer Turku shipyard held a steel cutting ceremony on Wednesday for the first of two Costa Cruises ships to be powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The ship, named Costa Smeralda, will debut in October 2019 with a sister ship following in 2021.
The vessels are a part of seven new ships for four Carnival Corporation’s global brands – Carnival Cruise Line, P&O Cruises UK, Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises.
AIDA Cruises laid the keel of the first of these LNG-fuelled ships last week at Meyer’s Papenburg yard.
The vessels, equipped with dual-fuel engines, are claimed to be the first of a new generation of cruise ships fully powered by LNG both while in port and at sea.
LNG bunkering will be provided by Shell Western LNG, a unit of the Hague-based LNG giant, as part of a deal Carnival signed with Shell back in 2016.