Wärtsilä Gas Solutions has announced that it will deliver the fuel supply system for two new gas carriers that will operate with ammonia fuel. The EXMAR LPG medium-size gas carriers will be the first oceangoing vessels to be propelled by dual-fuel engines capable of operating with ammonia.

The ships are on order at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyards (HMD) in Korea for ship owner EXMAR LPG, a joint venture between Exmar, a multi-disciplinary maritime and offshore solutions provider, and Seapeak, one of the largest independent owner-operators of liquefied natural gas vessels.

Wärtsilä had previously been awarded the contract to supply the cargo handling and fuel supply systems to a series of four gas carriers powered by engines capable of operating on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as fuel. Following a decision by EXMAR in October to convert the fuel systems to ammonia-fuelled propulsion, the contract for the supply of the dual-fuel low-speed two-stroke engines capable of operating on ammonia as a fuel to HMD was awarded to Winterthur-based technology supplier WinGD.