Record orders for LNG-fuelled ships seen in 2022
SUMMARY
There are 837 LNG-capable vessels on the water today, and a further 781 ordered.
By Joseph MurphySome 288 vessels were ordered so far in 2022 that are capable of using LNG as fuel, representing a record 54% of all orders by tonnage, according to data shared with Gas Pathways by Clarksons Research this week, despite the spike in global gas prices over the past year.
In the fleet and on the water today, there are currently 837 vessels that are LNG fuel capable – 4.4% of the global fleet by tonnage. There are in total 781 LNG-fuelled vessels on the newbuild orderbook by capacity, representing 39% of the total.
'While most of the activity this year has been for dual fuel LNG, there has been a little more interest recently on methanol and perhaps part of this may be due to high gas pricing," Clarksons Research said.
So far there have been 19 methanol-capable vessels ordered this year, bringing the total orderbook to 42. This means methanol-capable ships come to only 1.6% of the orderbook in gross tonnage terms, although they represent 2.9% of the orderbook so far this year.
