Oil Usage in Cruise Ships
Harava Rahardjo ’25
Victoria Kenton ’25
In 2019, cruise ships worldwide served 29.7 million ocean passengers, the highest it has ever been after steadily increasing for decades (CLIA, 2023). Although this annual statistic declined during the pandemic, cruise line tourism is on the rise again, with 2023’s numbers projected to exceed 2019 by over a million passengers. Many see cruise ships as alluring, family-friendly, all-in-one travel destinations, offering virtually everything needed to satisfy all generations in the vacationing family.
The increasing demand for this type of all-encompassing travel in the past few decades has made the cruise industry an exceedingly lucrative market. Now, the industry is driven by increased competition with new selections of diverse offerings, like the Disney Cruise Line, an increased number of ships, with a current total of 323 active cruise ships worldwide, and continuing developments of new, exorbitantly large cruise ships (Cruise Market Watch, 2021). However, with the growth of the cruise industry, the need for energy to power the ships grows with it. Fossil fuels and cruise lines are inextricably intertwined in this expanding market, and Earth pays the price.
The fuel consumption of cruise ships depends on various factors, including the ship’s speed, design, size, and the distance it’s traveling. Depending on these factors, a single cruise ship on average can use between 135 and 230 tonnes of fuel every day (Ma, 2023). Most cruise ships are fueled using a specific type of diesel designed for marine vessels called marine diesel oil (MDO) (Ma, 2023). Although similar to your regular diesel, marine diesel oil differs in a few aspects. Marine diesel oil is made up of a “blend of distillates and heavy fuel oil” and is higher in density than diesel fuels on land, which are pure distillates (Oiltanking, n.d.). Heavy fuel oil (HFO) is also used by traditional large ships, including some cruises, due to its low costs.
Despite these fuel sources being widely used among cruise ships, the overall environmental impact of the worldwide use of these fossil fuels, specifically on climate, habitats, and air quality, has garnered widespread criticism. According to the European Federation for Transport and Environment, the burning of fuels to operate cruise ships emits air pollutants like sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter that are harmful to human health and increase greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions. Another risk of utilizing non-renewable fossil fuels like diesel is overconsumption. Since these fuels continue to be excessively exploited to meet the massive energy needs of cruise ships, cruise ships directly impact the global depletion of natural fossil fuels, posing potential energy crises in the future. Research suggests that “a large cruise ship can have a carbon footprint greater than 12,000 cars” (University of Exeter, 2021). If you apply this data to the 323 active cruise ships worldwide and imagine this occurring daily, the fuel usage of cruise ships is alarming.
References
CLIA. (May 5, 2023). Number of ocean cruise passengers worldwide from 2009 to 2022, with a forecast until 2027 (in millions)
[Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved November 04, 2023, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/385445/number-of-passengers-of-the-cruise-industry-worldwide/
Cruise Market Watch. (2021). Capacity. Cruise Market Watch. https://cruisemarketwatch.com/capacity/
Ma, H. (2023, June 9). What Fuel Do Cruise Ships Use? Cruise Hive. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.cruisehive.com/what-fuel-do-cruise-ships-use/103277
Ma, H. (2023, July 20). Cruise Ship Fuel Consumption. Cruise Hive. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from
Oiltanking. (n.d.). Marine Diesel Oil (MDO) & Intermediate Fuel Oil (IFO). Oiltanking.
University of Exeter. (2021, September 28). Cruise ships must be effectively regulated to minimize serious environment and health
impact Date:. Science Daily. Retrieved November 4, 2023, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210928193815.htm
