An liquified natural gas bunker vessel has been ordered by commodity trading house Vitol.
The 12,500 cubic metre capacity ship is being built in a shipyard in China with systems technology supplied by engine manufacturer Wartsila Energy Solutions.
According to Wärtsilä, a firm with experience of producing small-scale LNG applications, it was its ability to "engineer, design and deliver a complete system, including the boil-off gas management, integrated fuel supply, custody transfer and bunkering transfer systems, [that] was central to the contract award".
LNG as bunker fuel has established itself as low-carbon alternative to oil-derived fuel over the medium term. Critics of the fuel point to its fossil-fuel base.
