French shipping company Brittany Ferries has named its third E-Flexer class vessel powered by liquefied natural gas the Santoña.
To be chartered from Stena, Santoña is part of the company’s €550 million ($615.8 million) fleet renewal program, Brittany Ferries said in a statement.
Santoña will be the third LNG powered vessel to join the Brittany Ferries fleet.
The company’s first LNG ship, Honfleur, will be operational next year. She is currently under construction in Germany and will serve the company’s busiest Portsmouth to Caen route.
Salamanca will arrive in 2022 to carry passengers and freight on long haul routes between the UK and Spain, while the Santoña will join the fleet in 2023.
Looking ahead to its LNG fueling requirements, Brittany Ferries has developed a solution to re-fuel its first LNG vessel, Honfleur. In partnership with Total, industry-standard, containerized LNG will be trucked on board, then lifted into position by onboard cranes where they will replenish Honfleur’s fixed, onboard LNG storage tank. The process will be reversed when mobile tanks are empty, the company said.
Additional costs of Honfleur’s LNG systems and equipment have been partially offset by the support of the French Government “Program of Investments for the Future” (Vehicle of the Future sub-program) and operated by ADEME.
For Spanish operations, Brittany Ferries has signed a letter of intent with Spanish energy company Repsol for the delivery of LNG. Under the agreement between the two companies, Repsol will install quayside LNG storage facility at ports in northern Spain. Confirmation is expected later this month. This will then be used to fuel both E-Flexer ships during their calls.
The E-Flexer class ships will be amongst the largest in Brittany Ferries’ fleet. Each will be 215 meters long with 3,000 garage lane meters for freight vehicles, and capacity for around 1,000 passengers.