OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian cruise ship operator Hurtigruten has signed a 7.5-year deal to buy liquefied biogas (LBG) made from dead fish and other organic waste to help power its vessels, the firm said on Thursday.
Under the contract with Biokraft, Hurtigruten ships will start receiving near-daily supplies of LBG, with the first delivery taking place in 2020, it added.
The company last year said it would invest about $800 million to refit six vessels to partly run on the renewable fuel.
"Οur ships will literally be powered by nature. Biogas is the greenest fuel in shipping, a no-brainer for us, and a huge advantage for the environment," Hurtigruten chief executive Daniel Skjeldam said in a statement.
The firm declined to provide a figure for the total value of the contract.
The hybrid ships will run on a combination of electric power from batteries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied biogas.
Biogas is already used as fuel in parts of the transport sector, especially in buses. It can be produced by using organic waste, such that from fisheries and forestry, which the Nordic region has in abundance.
(Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos, editing by Terje Solsvik and Kirsten Donovan)
