Construction Begins on Royal Caribbean’s First LNG-Powered Icon of the Seas

Royal Caribbean Cruises and LNG firm Baker Hughes announced they have signed a joint-venture agreement that will provide Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. with a 50 percent stake in the joint-venture firms LNG tanker and delivery services company, LNG World Global. The agreement marks Royal Caribbean’s entry into the renewable natural gas (LNG) marketplace and the first of its kind in the cruise industry.

Construction is beginning on Royal Caribbean’s first LNG-powered cruise ship, the “Icon of the Seas”, which will replace the company’s third-generation “Oasis of the Seas” in February 2016. The brand-new ship will feature the world’s first full-service LNG propulsion system, which will enable the ship to break free from its traditional reliance on expensive, diesel-fired boilers. The system, which was developed alongside Royal Caribbean’s expertise in LNG shipping, will allow room heating and air conditioning, as well as the propulsion of the ship’s propulsion system, to be powered with LNG, rather than diesel fuel, thereby dramatically reducing carbon emissions.

The $3.9 billion Royal Caribbean’s mega-yacht, the Oasis of the Seas, is finally getting an LNG power plant. The company announced today that the vessel would be the first to have an LNG propulsion system, the first in a series of vessels that will eventually replace the ships’ diesel engines.

Although Royal Caribbean has halted construction on most of its ships for the past 15 months, the cruise line continues to work on a new Icon-class cruise ship. Today the first piece of steel was cut at the shipyard, with which the construction was officially started. The name of the Icon of the Seas, the first ship in the fleet to sail on liquefied natural gas (LNG), was also announced.

Start construction Icon of the Seas

Wednesday marks an important milestone for Royal Caribbean: The first steel is being cut for the new generation of Icon class cruise ships. The steel cutting ceremony took place at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland, and at the same time the name of the ship, Icon of the Seas, was announced.

Here are the highlights of the steel cutting ceremony:

The ceremony was attended by Richard Fain, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean Group, Michael Bailey, chairman and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, and Tim Meyer, managing director of Meyer Turku. This is a significant milestone for the cruise line, as Icon of the Seas will be the first LNG-powered ship in the fleet and the first of three new Icon-class ships.

Michael Bailey, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, said:

When the Icon class was announced in 2016, we made a commitment to make clean offshore a reality and soon the norm, and we look forward to building a vessel that will truly be like no other.

Our decades of ocean conservation, energy efficiency and continuous improvement efforts will be visible on the icon. We look forward to showing our guests and crew more and more of her skills as she begins to take shape.

CEO Tim Meyer said:

We gladly accepted the challenge. Now that production of the ships has started in our workshops, we are beginning to see the results of our development become tangible. This is always a time of celebration for us shipbuilders.

It is too early to know all the details about the ship. Royal Caribbean will release more information in the coming months, including itineraries and onboard amenities. Icon of the Seas will debut in the fall of 2023. The ship will have a gross tonnage of approximately 200,000 tons, making it one of the largest ships in the world, after the Oasis class.

Royal Caribbean recently brought its newest cruise ship, the Odyssey of the Seas, to the United States. The world’s next largest cruise ship, the Wonder of the Seas, is currently under construction in France and is expected to debut in 2023.

Royal Caribbean Cruises has announced it has begun the construction of the first-ever LNG-powered cruise ship, the $4.5 billion, 2,700-passenger Royal Caribbean International’s first LNG-powered ship. The new ship, scheduled to enter service in early 2018, will replace Royal Caribbean’s current fleet of 4,100-passenger, LNG-powered ships, which will be retired as part of the company’s fleet renewal plan..