Spain’s Molgas fueling AIDA’s LNG newbuild

Spanish LNG supplier Molgas Energía has been busy lately bunkering LNG-powered vessels with the chilled fuel in Spanish ports via a truck-to-ship method.

The company says it has signed a deal to supply the fuel to AIDA Cruises’ LNG-powered AIDAperla during the vessel’s stay in five Mediterranean ports.

The first LNG bunkering operation under the deal took place in the Spanish port of Barcelona on October 20, Molgas COO Juan Menchero told LNG World News on Wednesday.

LNG bunkering operations of the 2017-built AIDAperla will gradually follow in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, Italy’s Civitavecchia and Livorno, and France’s Marseille.

To remind, AIDA Cruises, a Carnival Corporation company, said in November it would start regular operations to supply the AIDAperla with LNG following successful tests.

On average, a cruise ship spends around 40 percent of its operating time in a port. Thanks to its dual-fuel engine, the AIDAperla can produce the required energy from LNG during the ship’s port berth.

Menchero said that Molgas bought two specially adapted 40-foot containers for the bunkering operations of the AIDAperla.

‘”Each container loads about 15 metric tonnes and is connected to the ship approximately 12 hours in continuous supply,” he said.

In a separate development, Molgas recently bunkered the LNG-powered cement carrier Ireland, owned by the joint venture JT cement, in which Sweden’s Erik Thun AB cooperates with KG Jebsen Cement from Norway.

The vessel received 40 metric tonnes of LNG in the Port of Algeciras on December 10. The bunkering operation was completed in 4 hours.

In this case, the LNG will be used for propulsion, not for the electric generation of the vessel whilst in port as is the case with the AIDAperla.

LNG World News Staff