Wes Amelie saves 1 million euros using the LNG

The container ship Wes Amelie has saved on average over US $ 3,000 per day (or about 2,750 Euros /day) during 2019, using liquefied natural gas (LNG) instead of maritime diesel (MGO).

According to a statement of the German owner company Wessels Reederei, the vessel, built in 2011 and converted to LNG in 2017, consumed approximately 10 tonnes of LNG daily, allowing in the past year cumulated  savings of over one million Euros in bunkering costs.

According to Christian Hoepfner, CEO of the shipping company, further savings were generated by the reduction of port taxes making  the ship very competitive and fully chartered for the third consecutive year.

The 1,036 TEU containership Wes Amelie operates in European short-sea shipping with its main base in the Port of Rotterdam serving several ports in the Baltic Sea and passing through the Kiel Canal; it takes about 13 days for a sea roundtrip, consuming approximately 130 tons of LNG for each roundtrip.

"The price of LNG is absolutely competitive compared to conventional fuels, also in relation to heavy fuel oil" says Hoepfner "at the end of the last year the difference in price between a ton of LNG and a ton of marine diesel (MGO) in Rotterdam was equal to about 235 Euro, while taking into account also the energy content, the advantage was even close to 315 Euro."

Among other things, Wessels Marine is testing some trials together with the technology company MAN Energy Solutions to supply the Wes Amelie also with liquefied synthetic natural gas (SNG), obtained from a power-to gas (6 MW) plant in Werlte, in Bavaria, owned by  the automaker Audi.

According to a statement of Stefan Eefting, Senior Vice President of MAN PrimeServ in Augsburg, initially only 20% of the LNG bunker would be made up of SNG; the ship could operate also using 100% synthesis gas, but in this case a greater liquefaction capacity would be needed at the Audi facility.