How Much Fuel Does a Cruise Ship Use on a Voyage ?
Cruise ships travel all over the world and we answer how much fuel does a cruise ship use on a typical voyage.
Of course each cruise liner have different destinations from the caribbean to alaska and beyond into the seas in Europe so getting the exact answer on how much fuel does a cruise ship use on any trip will vary considerably but we’ll have a go at answering that question.
Marine oil known as bunker fuel was priced at around $300 per ton in 2007 and $650 per ton in 2008 as the price of oil increased. So if you are holding 1 million gallons you see the cost of a cruise in fuel terms alone is massive. More modern ships are more fuel efficient because of their design and are “flat bottomed” so they move through the water easier and thus need less fuel to propel it along.
Different companies use different fuel for example in the caribbean some liners use low cost high sulfur fuel that is still allowed in that region where governments in most other parts of the world insist ships burn more cleaner environmentally friendly fuel such as diesel which is more expensive. The taxes are also different depending on where the fuel was purchased so the cost is different on where you cruise and of course which company you choose.
Cruise ships burn special fuel called marine gas fuel oil examples of some of the ships cruising around the world are as follows:
Queen Mary 2
The QM2 has 4 diesel generators to push the ship along at an average speed of 25 knots with a maximum speed of 30 knots by using 2 gas turbine generators which burn 6 tonnes of marine gas oil per hour. Overall it has a miles per gallon figure of 0.00753 or moves 40 foot per gallon of fuel burned.
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