Dutch marine contractor Van Oord and Belgium’s DEME will deploy LNG-powered dredgers on the river Elbe in Germany as part of a new maintenance contract revealed on Wednesday.
Van Oord said the maintenance work covers the stretch of the fairway from Hamburg to Cuxhaven.
The joint venture partners will deploy several trailing suction hopper dredgers on this project from May onwards for a period of 12 months.
In order to maintain the navigable depths on the Elbe in a “sustainable way, most vessels will run on environmentally friendly fuels such as LNG and biofuel,” Van Oord said.
The Dutch firm has three LNG-powered sister vessels on order at Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine and should take delivery of Vox Ariane in 2021.
On the other side, DEME already operates LNG-powered dredgers and has earlier this year completed a milestone fueling operation in the Belgian port of Antwerp.
The joint venture partners’ vessels have already performed work along the Elbe as part of a previous contract.
Additionally, DEME recently completed the deepening of the river, which makes it easier for the mega container carriers to call into the Port of Hamburg as they are less dependent on the tides.
