Desgagnés takes delivery of the world’s first dual-fuel / LNG asphalt tanker
Desgagnés announces yesterday that it has taken delivery of the Damia Desgagnés, a brand new vessel recently completed in Turkey. A next generation and state-of-the-art asphalt-bitumen-chemical tanker, she is the first of a series of four oil carriers, custom-built according to an original concept developed by Desgagnés and ordered at the Besiktas shipyard located in Yalova near Istanbul, Turkey.
The Damia Desgagnés is the first dual-fuel powered Canadian-flagged tanker and the first-ever asphalt carrier of this type. Her most notable characteristic is that with simple commands, she can be powered by any of three types of fuel, namely heavy fuel oil, marine diesel oil or liquefied natural gas (LNG), which has undeniable advantages in terms of sustainable development by drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions, amongst others.
Since last August, an intense training effort has been carried out to prepare Desgagnés’s crewmembers to take charge of the Damia Desgagnés and the three other tankers currently in various stages of construction. To date, a total of nearly 2,500 hours of training in the handling of LNG has been given.
The Damia Desgagnés should set sail around April 10th and is scheduled to arrive in Canada mid-May.