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The one-year countdown to the maiden operation of the world's first fully LNG-powered cruise ship, the AIDAnova, starts this week, with the vessel due to depart from Germany for the first time on December 2, 2018.

On its maiden voyage, the cruise ship is scheduled to set sail from Hamburg to the Canary Islands - which suggests that the Spanish island is another location where the cruise operator aims to be able to perform LNG bunkering before the end of next year.

As Bunker Index previously reported, Meyer celebrated the keel-laying ceremony for the AIDAnova on September 4.

This Saturday (December 2), the second and last engine room module for the AIDAnova - which was manufactured by the Neptun shipyard in Rostock Warnemunde - will begin its journey to the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg.

The second floating part, a so-called floating engine room unit (FERU), is 120 metres long and 42 metres wide. The four-deck-tall component contains three LNG tanks. Two of the tanks are both just shy of 35 metres in length, with a diameter of eight meters and a volume capacity of 1,550 cubic metres (cbm) each.

A third and smaller tank with a diameter of five meters is 28 meters in length and has a volume capacity of approximately 520 cbm.

A twin 180,000-gross-tonne (grt) ship - also able to operate on LNG both in port and at sea - is slated for completion in 2021.

Earlier this week, parent company Carnival Corporation confirmed that another AIDA Cruises vessel, the AIDAperla, will be supplied with LNG while docked at the Mediterranean ports of Barcelona (Spain), Marseille (France) and Civitavecchia (Italy). Carnival says it is also currently in discussion with authorities in Palma de Mallorca (Spain).

The AIDAperla's twin ship, AIDAprima, has also bunkered with LNG in Southampton (UK), Le Havre (France), Zeebrugge (Belgium) and Rotterdam (Netherlands).