In early November, the Finnish cruise ferry operator Viking Line said it would temporarily switch to using oil instead of LNG as fuel on its flagship, the 57,656-gross-ton cruise ferry Viking Glory, because the price of LNG had trebled since the spring.
Several other shipping companies have done the same. The high price of LNG has caught the industry off guard – cruise shipping included, according to Robin Meech, the UK-based consultant.
“The high price has come as a surprise. LNG was favoured because it was cheap. This has now muddied the waters somewhat,” he told CruiseTimes.
LNG is the cleanest fossil fuel, but it is not the answer to the industry’s challenge to decarbonise shipping. It is only an interim solution. Meech believed that the IMO should introduce legislation that rewarded lower emissions in order to drive the technological development faster and further.
LNG is used extensively as fuel by ferry companies, and the number of cruise ships that will use it is poised to increase significantly in the next few years.