The Silver Ray will be refueled by the barge Ravenna Knutsen which shuttles between Spain and the Adriatic for Edison
Tomorrow, Monday 29 July, for the first time the port of Trieste will be the scene of a liquefied natural gas bunkering operation for the cruise ship Silver Ray of the extra luxury company Silversea.
Ravenna Knutsen
SHIPPING ITALY had announced this possibility on 28 June, which can now materialize thanks to a special order signed by the Port Authority of Trieste in the first days of July.
The barge that will physically carry out the refueling and that transported the LNG to the upper Adriatic is the Ravenna Knutsen, which is already at anchor in front of the Julian port
New Silver Ray cruise
At the moment it is still a possibility but various parties involved are working hard to ensure that the refueling of liquefied natural gas via barge to the brand new Silver Ray cruise ship of Silversea, an extra luxury company of the Royal Caribbean group, can take place in the port of Trieste as early as next July.
According to what SHIPPING ITALY has learned, the fuel should be supplied, as early as next July and until September, by Edison, which already receives LNG regularly from Spain thanks to a barge (the Ravenna Knutsen) that picks up the product and transports it to the onshore depot in the port of Ravenna inaugurated in 2021.
Nova Class
The last obstacle to overcome seems to be the necessary green light from the Trieste port authority without whose consent the refueling operations, while the ship is moored at the Trieste Passenger Terminal, will not be possible.
Silver Ray is the second ship of the innovative Nova Class delivered just a month ago by the German shipyard Meyer Werft to the Silversea company (Royal Caribbean group) and from Trieste offers 11-day cruises departing from the port of Venice, calling at the Julian capital and arriving in Athens, with stops at the ports of Zadar, Hvar, Dubrovnik, Bari, Kotor, Corfu, Heraklion and Santorini.
Costa Smeralda cruise
To date, in Italy, ship-to-ship LNG refueling of the Costa Smeralda cruise ship of Costa Crociere has been successfully tested only once in the port of Spezia in 2020, while before that another refueling of a tugboat had been completed but via the truck-to-ship method, therefore from land.
Organic waste
The same method of refueling of liquefied natural gas via tanker from land took place in recent weeks in the port of Trapani where the new Nerea ferry taken over by Caronte & Tourist Isole Minori is in service to cover the route to the island of Pantelleria.
In the future, the Sicilian shipping company intends to refuel its most modern ferries, always with the same truck-to-ship method, with biogas, a 100% sustainable fuel derived from organic waste.
Sources : Shipping Italy
