LNG dual-fuel vessels are the lowest cost option among fossil fuels for shipowners to meet new EU and International Maritime Organization (IMO) decarbonisation regulations, according to industry coalition SEA-LNG.
The analysis simulated expenses for a single 14,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) vessel and for an eight-vessel fleet of the same size operating the Rotterdam–Singapore trade route from 2025-2040. It compared the expenses for LNG, ammonia and methanol fuel families, but did not consider liquid biofuels and bio-oils because SEA-LNG sees the availability for those as still limited and the cost-benefit unfeasible in the short term.
For a single ship, LNG is able to comply with the FuelEU Maritime rules until 2039 in its fossil form. Green fuels like liquefied biomethane are only needed for compliance from 2040 onwards. For an eight-vessel dual-fuel fleet, the overall cost of compliance with LNG will be $5mn-17mn/yr lower than with methanol and ammonia.
According to the research, ammonia and methanol dual-fuel vessels are likely to need more expensive green fuels to comply with FuelEU Maritime as of 2025, mainly when navigating through Emission Control Areas (ECAs). But LNG dual-fuel ships are likely to avoid using marine gas oil for ECA compliance.
For the research, SEA-LNG used the methodology from Z-Joule — a company that offers strategic support for the maritime fuel transition — and considered variants such as vessel speed and waiting times to dock.
