Tenerife Kicks Off Cruise LNG Bunkering Season with the Arvia

On October 27, the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife carried out the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering operation of the 2026-2027 cruise season, with the vessel Arvia as the protagonist. The Port Authority expects to carry out up to 33 such operations during the season, compared to 18 recorded in the previous campaign, representing an increase of 83.3%.

The bunkering was carried out using the bunker barge New Frontier 1, under the agency of Erhardt Shipping Services, which transferred one thousand tonnes of LNG to the Arvia, a vessel operated by P&O Cruises and part of Carnival Corporation. The call, handled at the Tenerife Cruise Terminal and under the agency of Pérez y Cía., carried approximately 5,300 passengers and 1,670 crew members on board. The cruise ship arrived from Southampton and was scheduled to depart at 18:00 hours bound for Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.

The schedule released by the Port Authority includes bunkering operations for vessels linked to Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean International and TUI Cruises, companies that will use this fuel during their calls at the Tenerife port throughout the season.

The use of LNG reduces sulfur oxide and particulate matter emissions compared to conventional marine fuels and can lower direct carbon dioxide emissions, although the overall climate balance also depends on controlling methane slip throughout the supply chain and during combustion. Tenerife was the first Spanish port to bunker LNG to a cruise ship, the AIDAnova, in December 2018, and has since welcomed more LNG-capable vessels.

The 2026-2027 season will allow Santa Cruz de Tenerife to gauge its capacity to handle a greater number of LNG bunkering operations without disrupting passenger traffic, testing the availability of bunker barges and the coordination of time windows among the port, the terminal, the shipping lines, the agents and the fuel supplier.