At the expense of around €12.5m Baleària's ferry Nápoles was equipped with dual-fuel engines by the Gibdock shipyard in Gibraltar, along with a 200t-big liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage tank.

The 186 m-long ship, offering room for up to 950 passengers and 2,040 lane metres of cargo capacity, has replaced the Martín i Soler ferry on the service between Huelva and the Canary Islands.

Nápoles is the first in a series of six ferries Baleària plans to LNG-retrofit over the next two years in an EU-supported project.

Meanwhile, the company's first brand-new LNG-run ferry, the 186.5 m-long Hypatia de Alejandría (800 pax, and 2,194 lm), was put into operation at the end of January. Her sister ship, Marie Curie, currently under construction at the Cantiere Navale Visentini shipyard in Venice, will soon join her. The company has invested €200m to construct the newbuilds.

In addition, the Armon de Gijón shipbuilding yard is working on Baleària's €80m-worth Eleanor Roosevelt, a dual-fuel high-speed passenger-cargo craft (125 m-long, 28 m-wide, 1,200 pax, 500 lm).