Belgian shipping firm Somtrans has welcomed in its fleet the second LNG-powered inland barge which will work along the Rhine.
Dutch shipbuilder and shipbroker RensenDriessen has designed and built the hull of the 14,000-cbm inland chemical tanker Swiss LNG 2, while its partner De Gerlien van Tiem completed the outfitting.
The partners built the 135 meters long vessel for Swiss Barging, a subsidiary of Somtrans.
To remind, RensenDriessen has completed the first vessel in this batch of two, Swiss LNG 1, earlier this year.
Both of the LR-classed vessels feature dual-fuel propulsion from Finland’s Wartsila and 70 cbm LNG tanks supplied by Dutch cryogenic tech firm Cryonorm.
The tankers would be able to sail at “extremely low” water levels and they would “work on the Rhine, towards the German hinterland,” RensenDriessen previously said.
Their trading route will include the Dutch port of Rotterdam and Basel in Switzerland.
RensenDriessen also worked, along with TeamCo Shipyard, on the first LNG-powered inland vessel for the Belgian shipowner, named Somtrans LNG.
This vessel started serving Somtrans in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) region in 2019.