Wes Amelie, the world’s first containership retrofitted with a liquefied natural gas (LNG) engine, has received LNG in a ship-to-ship (STS) operation from the world’s largest LNG bunker supply vessel Kairos .
The operation took place in the anchorage area in front of Visby, Sweden, on April 21, 2019.
As explained, the transfer of LNG between the two vessels marks an important step in several aspects, with Wes Amelie having received LNG for the first time from a bunker supply vessel and the Baltic Sea seeing the first STS LNG bunker operation for a vessel of that kind.
“We are proud that in cooperation with Unifeeder and Wessels Reederei we have been able to provide a … ship-to-ship LNG fuelling solution for Wes Amelie. The successful operation proves again that LNG is becoming a fuel for all segments in the shipping sector and that the availability of the molecules is secured in Northwest Europe,” Mahinde Abeynaike, CEO of Nauticor, commented.
Owned by Wessels Reederei, Wes Amelie was the first of its kind to run on the environmentally-friendly fuel, when the vessel was retrofitted in 2017. Deployed on a feeder route between Rotterdam and the Baltics, the vessel is operated by Unifeeder.
“As one of the first movers in the use of LNG as fuel for container vessels, we have a substantial interest in developing a comprehensive LNG supply infrastructure. The development of ship-to-ship supply chains, such as the one offered by Nauticor with Kairos, is an important step towards a more efficient LNG distribution,” Hans Staal, Head of Bunker Procurement of Unifeeder, said.
“The container feeder segment is predestined for the use of LNG as marine fuel and ship-to-ship LNG bunkering is an elementary component,” Christian Hoepfner, Managing Director of Wessels Marine, pointed out.
“Wes Amelie has … shown that the use of LNG substantially benefits the environment along the feeder routes and raises advantages for the operators. Therefore, we are working on a number of similar projects to rapidly expand the fleet of eco-friendly vessels converted to LNG,” he added.
Image Courtesy: Nauticor