Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced the delivery of the LNG-fuelled VLCC Tsurugidake to Sequoia Navigation Inc. on 23 Oct 2026, marking the fourth such vessel delivered by the Kawasaki Group. The ship was handed over at Dalian COSCO KHI Ship Engineering Co., Ltd. (DACKS) in Dalian, China, a shipyard jointly operated by Kawasaki and China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited. Tsurugidake features a newly designed bow that extends the vessel's waterline length instead of a conventional bulbous bow, reducing wave-making resistance and improving propulsion efficiency. It pairs a low-speed, ultra-long-stroke main engine with a large-diameter propeller to cut fuel consumption during long-distance crude oil transport. The vessel runs on a dual-fuel main engine capable of using either liquefied natural gas or low-sulphur fuel oil, and is also fitted with exhaust gas scrubbers on its main and auxiliary engines, allowing compliance with sulphur limits while retaining flexibility to use higher-sulphur fuel where permitted. According to Kawasaki Heavy Industries, operating on LNG is expected to cut CO2 emissions by roughly 25-30%, SOx by about 100%, and NOx by around 85%, compared with conventional heavy-fuel-oil engines, though the manufacturer notes these figures depend on operating conditions and the baseline used for comparison. The vessel also meets EEDI Phase 3 requirements applicable to VLCCs contracted from fiscal year 2025 onwards, aligning with IMO efforts to improve new ship energy efficiency and reduce shipping's carbon emissions.
The delivery reflects a broader industry trend of combining hull design innovation, efficient propulsion and dual-fuel technology to improve VLCC environmental performance.