A contract was signed between Sefine Shipyard and Norwegian Cecon Contracting for building a methanol-powered dual-fuel cable-laying vessel. The vessel to be built by Sefine shipyard for the Norwegian company has been introduced as “a groundbreaking, state-of-the-art cable-laying vessel.”
As is known, methanol is being quickly adopted in the maritime sector as an alternative fuel in new buildings. The recent contract between Sefine Shipyard and Cecon Contracting has become an example for the rising trend of methanol-fueled vessels. The vessel has been designed by the Norwegian NSK Ship Design company in cooperation with the engineering team of Cecon. The vessel which is to be built in Sefine Shipyard of Turkiye is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2025. The project is financed by SpareBank 1 Nord-Norge. It has been reported that the design has been intended for typical open sea wind services as well as for lightweight building work with a capacity to work offshore.
Cecon said, “One of the main goals of the design was to develop a modern and ecofriendly cable vessel without sacrificing from vessel capacities. The vessel shall come with a methanol dual-fuel system and a battery package for storing hybrid energy.” NSK reported that thanks to the “green profile” of the vessel with methanol/battery drive system, emissions shall be reduced by up to 75 percent. The vessel shall have a methanol generator consisting of four pieces of 1500 kWe unit and a methanol capacity of 700 cubic meters. The 328 feet long vessel shall have a deck area of over 10.000 square feet and a crane of 70 tons. In addition to the modular deck top cable storage tank of Cecons, accommodation facilities for up to 100 people and a topside cable storage tank of 2.800 tons shall be available. The companies reported that comprehensive operational experience is implemented to develop a versatile working platform which allows the vessel to be operated in the other segments of offshore industry when not used for laying cables. The official Cecon website shows a fleet of eight vessels operating in the fields of iron handling, cabling and construction work. The new vessel is a model which has been uniquely prepared for the future challenges in the sector.
DNV senior advisor Martin Christian Wold has recently emphasized that the number of orders placed for building methanol-fueled vessels has for the first time in October been more than the number of orders for LNG-fueled vessels. DNV reports that, according to the Alternative Fuel Insights database, currently 20 methanol-fueled vessels are in operation. The shipbuilding orders expected to be delivered in the next six years will add a further 64 methanol-fueled vessels to this number. At present, methanol is being used particularly by petroleum and chemical tankers as well as by a number of RoPax; but this number is expected to grow fast with the first few orders placed for container vessels as well as general cargo ships and other offshore vessels.
