LNG

Brittany Ferries, the French line that links the UK with Spain and France, has signed an LNG fuel supply deal for newbuild roll-on-roll-off passenger and freight vessels connecting Portsmouth in England with two French ports.

Bureau Veritas, the French maritime classification society, has taken delivery into its class portfolio of the LNG-powered newbuild cruise ferry “Salamanca” constructed for France’s Brittany Ferries in the Chinese Jinling shipyard.

The LNG-fuelled vessel will be able to carry more than 1,000m passengers and be operated by Brittany Ferries on its route between Portsmouth in the UK and the port os Bilbao and Santander in Northern Spain.

The “Salamanca” is the second “E-Flexer” class ferry to enter service with Brittany Ferries as part of its commitment to introduce cleaner and more efficient ships to its fleet in the next five years.

After its sister ship, “Galicia”, joined the fleet in December 2020, “Salamanca” will enter service in March 2022 and will be the first to be fuelled by LNG.

Brittany Ferries started life in 1972 as a freight-only service sailing from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth in the South of England with fresh vegetables such as cargoes of artichokes and cauliflowers to please the British palate.

Since then the company developed its “Atlantic Arc” ferry business linking France, the UK, Spain and Ireland.

Analysts noted that it has been a great success in reducing motorway traffic from tourists from the UK who can cut out France in travelling south to Spain and Portugal.

Brittany Ferries said that with a length of 214.5 metres, the “Salamanca” was designed with efficiency and the environment in mind.

The vessel is equipped with twin 12V46DF (dual-fuelled) engines from Finland's Wärtsilä.

The ferry will be supplied with LNG in the ports of Bilbao and Santander, enabling round trips between Spain and Portsmouth.

More LNG vessels

Brittany Ferries plans to deploy three more LNG-fuelled vessels in the coming years with the “Santoña” joining the fleet in 2023 on the The company added that the Portsmouth-Santander-Bilbao route, and two hybrid LNG-electric ships will enter service between France and the UK in time for the 2025 season.

“Renewing our fleet stands as one of the pillars of Brittany Ferries’ recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Arnaud Le Poulichet, Technical Director at Brittany Ferries.

“It goes hand-in-hand with sustainability, and will see the introduction of a range of cleaner vessels that will enable us to reduce our environmental footprint and deliver on our sustainability targets,” stated Le Poulichet.

Bruno Dabouis, Vice President Southern Europe, North Africa and North America at Bureau Veritas Marine and Offshore said BV has been involved in LNG propulsion and bunkering from the very start.

“We are proud to partner with Brittany Ferries as an environmental frontrunner, and we are looking forward to supporting ‘Salamanca’ and its operational life on the route across the Bay of Biscay from the UK to Spain, the longest Brittany Ferries route,” added Dabouis.

Spanish energy company Repsol has started the construction of the liquefied natural gas bunkering terminal in the northwest Spanish port of Bilbao to supply the Brittany Ferries company and its LNG-powered vessels linking to port in Northern France, the UK and Ireland.

The first two vessels to be provided for are the “Salamanca” and the “Santoña”, which will start their operations in 2022 and 2023 respectively. The Bilbao terminal will also supply other ships with LNG fuel in the future.

“The construction of this terminal is part of the long-term collaboration agreement formalized in 2019 between Repsol and Brittany Ferries for the supply of LNG to their operations in Spain,” Repsol explained.

This facility is scheduled to be commissioned in the first half of 2022.

The Bilbao terminal will have a cryogenic tank with a storage capacity of 1,000 cubic metres.

“The flexible design of the terminal will allow it to service different vessels in the future, representing an important decarbonization opportunity for port operations,” stated Repsol.

Joint effort

The Spanish company said the start of construction is on schedule thanks to the efficient collaboration between Repsol's engineering teams, the different administrations involved and the Port Authority of Bilbao.

Repsol said it was commited to industrial development for fuel and the bunkering venture involves an investment of more than €10 million ($11.7M).

Repsol is also planting the construction of a second LNG bunkering at another northwest port, Santander. It will have the same capacity as Bilbao and is being developed in cooperation with the Port Authority of Santander.

Work has already begun on the conditioning of the quay where the bunker station will be located.

Both terminals are co-financed by the European Commission through the CEF-Connecting Europe Facilities Programme.

Spain currently has six operational LNG import and storage terminals around the coastline and they will provide supplies of fuel.

Repsol cited data from the Iberian Association of Natural Gas for Mobility (Gasnam), showing that the current fleet of LNG-powered ships worldwide is 221, which represents 70 percent growth compared with the 131 ships that were sailing in 2018.

Spanish energy company Repsol, a maritime fuel sector participant with plans to re-fuel Spain-UK ferries with LNG,  said the International Maritime Organization sulfur curbs had led to it selling around 150,000 metric tons of low-sulfur fuel at Spanish ports and nearly 1 million tons in Singapore.

Brittany Ferries, the French line that links the UK with Spain and France, has celebrated the launch of its cruise-ferry “Galicia” and the start of work on another LNG-powered vessel, the “Salamanca”, at the Avic Weihai shipyard in Shandong in eastern China.

The newbuilds are part of the Breton company’s 550 million euros ($607M) fleet renewal programme.

Its very first LNG-powered ship, the “Honfleur”, is currently under construction at the Flensberg shipyard in Germany and will enter service on the route from Portsmouth in the UK to Caen in France in 2020.

The “Honfleur” and the “Salamanca” will be joined a year later by a third LNG-fueled sister ship to be named “Santoña”.

“While ‘Galicia’ will be fitted with funnel exhaust gas cleaning systems, ‘Salamanca’ and ‘Santoña’ will be amongst the first ferries of their type to be powered by LNG, offering significant environmental advantages over traditional marine fuels, burning more efficiently and producing no sulfur, virtually no particulates and 95 percent less nitrogen dioxide,” said Brittany Ferries.

“The 215-metre long hull of ‘Galicia’ was majestically floated out at a traditional Chinese ship-launching ceremony,” said the company.

“Then, alongside in the building dock the very first steel was cut for fleet mate ‘Salamanca’, marking the beginning of the ship’s construction,” it added.

When complete, the two ships will serve Brittany Ferries’ long-haul routes connecting Portsmouth to Santander and Bilbao in northern Spain, with “Galicia” due to enter service in late 2020 followed by “Salamanca” in the Spring of 2022.

“It gives me great pleasure to be here in China to celebrate the launch of ‘Galicia’ and the start of work on ‘Salamanca,” said Brittany Ferries Chief Executive Christophe Mathieu at the ceremony

“Our customers rightly expect our fleet to be modern, comfortable and efficient, with the promise of minimal environmental impact from operations and we can only achieve this aim with the very best, innovative new ships,” added Mathieu.

“The ‘Galicia and ‘Salamanca’ are perfectly suited to our long-haul Spanish operations, and will allow us to further enhance our service to holidaymakers and hauliers taking advantage of these routes,” stated the CEO.

Mathieu also mentioned the uncertainty facing the company over Brexit, as a long-time and popular ferry company for British passengers and freight.

“As a French company operating ferries between the UK, France, Spain and Ireland, we are, for sure, concerned by the current political uncertainty in Europe,” he said.

“But we are certain of the course that Brittany Ferries will follow in the years to come. And these brand new ships are tangible evidence - in steel - of our confidence and optimism looking ahead,” added Mathieu.

The three 42,200-tonne “E-Flexer” class ships will be among the biggest in the fleet of Brittany Ferries, measuring 215 metres long, with around three kilometres of space for cars and lorries.

Brittany Ferries currently has 11 ships carrying between 2.5 million and 2.7M passengers each year travelling in approximately 900,000 cars.

Freight trucks number 210,000 annually and there is one freight-only route linking Bilbao in Spain with Poole in the UK.

The company’s services cover 11 ports: Spain’s Bilbao and Santander, the UK’s Portsmouth, Poole and Plymouth, the Irish port of Cork and the French ports of Caen, Cherbourg, Le Havre, Saint-Malo and Roscoff.

Brittany Ferries, the shipping line connecting passengers and freight in France, Spain, the UK and the Republic of Ireland has extended a liquefied natural gas fuel supply agreement with Spanish energy company Repsol as it awaits the delivery of three LNG-powered ferries.

French shipping company Brittany Ferries said its third chartered ferry powered by liquefied natural gas has been named the “Santoña” and it expects British passengers to remain its top customers even after the UK leaves the European Union.

French shipping company Brittany Ferries has signed a deal to charter a liquefied natural gas-powered ferry built in China as it expands its clean-fuel fleet and expects British passengers to remain its top customers even after the UK leaves the European Union.

Brittany Ferries has signed an agreement with Spanish energy company Repsol for the delivery of liquefied natural gas for its Spanish operations and for ferries serving the UK.

French energy major Total has signed an agreement with Brittany Ferries to supply LNG bunkering fuel to the port of Ouistreham in northwest France and for the first LNG-powered French cruise ferry that will provide regular services to Portsmouth in England from 2019.