• 07 Feb 2017

At the 2017 LNG Bunkering Summit in Amsterdam, the Swiss-based cruise line MSC Cruises and the german manufacturer of gas and liquid transfer solutions ARTA, have announced a joint  partenership for the development of a tailor-made LNG bunkering system that takes full account of the cruise industry’s specific needs. The agreement follows a letter of intent signed between MSC Cruises and the STX France shipyard of Saint-Nazaire in June 2016 for the construction of up to four LNG-powered cruise ships that will be more than 200,000 Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT). The first vessel is scheduled for delivery in 2022. Overall, the company’s €9 billion investment will see the construction of 11 new next-generation cruise ships over the next 10 years, including the four LNG-powered cruise ships (an investment worth €4bn). Yves Bui, MSC Cruises’ LNG Project Director, said: “With up to four LNG-powered cruise ships scheduled to join our fleet, we are highly committed to developing the best possible technologies and systems to support the introduction of LNG to cruising. In ARTA, we have found a partner that matches our focus on innovation and the best maritime technology at sea and that understands our industry’s specific needs. The result is a system that features a newly developed coupling and decoupling mechanism as well as a double-walled hose that will allow us to conduct bunkering operations without disrupting the activities taking place on board the ship.” Andreas von Keitz, ARTA’s Managing Director, added: “We are exceptionally glad of the new system that we have developed to suit the cruise industry’s specific bunkering needs. Thanks to our partnership with MSC Cruises we have been able to fully understand these needs and have put over 40 years of our bunkering engineering experience to good use. The result is a technologically advanced solution that will help ensure that the double wall principle is maintained across the entire LNG bunkering supply chain.”