Economic Feasibility of LNG Fuel for Ocean-going Ships: A Case Study of Container Vessels

Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) fuelled system has received increasing attention from the shipping industry. However, the main barriers such as high capital investment costs required by LNG fuelled ships, uncertainties in LNG supply and price are still hinder the uptake of LNG as a marine fuel, especially for the trans-ocean going application. Also, uncertainties brought by unexpected events such as war and global pandemic, force us to revisit the topic of economic feasibility of the alternative emission reduction technologies. A lifetime-based cost evaluation framework has been proposed to systematically evaluate the implementation of using LNG as fuel for general ocean-going commercial ships. The benefits of the approach were discussed through a case study and the economic performance of the three varying sizes of ocean-going LNG-fuelled container ships were tested. Uncertainty analysis has been conducted with Monte Carlo simulation to evaluate the economic feasibility of using LNG as marine fuel under different fuel price scenarios. Case study and uncertainty analysis indicated that the acquisition premium for ocean-going LNG-fuelled container ships is sufficient to warrant the saving in terms of the LCC. Nevertheless, under the low fuel price scenarios, LNG fuelled ship has no cost advantages in the lifetime perspective.