LNG

The American Bureau of Shipping, the US maritime classification society, has approved an upgraded and larger liquified natural gas containment system developed by Norwegian firm LNT Marine along with the Shanghai Merchant Ship Design and Research Institute.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French LNG storage technology company, reported a slight drop in full-year revenues though the results were strong as orders also reached a record level with demand increasing for new vessels.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French designer of maritime liquefied natural gas storage and fuel tanks, said it received an order from its partner, China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, for the tank design of the first four LNG carriers for the QatarEnergy expansion project on behalf of the Japanese shipowner, Mitsui Osk Lines.

The Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai is a subsidiary of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp.

MOL, which has an operating fleet of almost 100 LNG carriers, had ordered the ships in April 2022 as it also increases its interests in the Chinese LNG shipping market.

GTT will design the tanks of these four new LNG carriers with a total of LNG tank capacity of 174,000 cubic metres per ship and the vessels will be fitted with the latest membrane containment system developed by GTT.

The deliveries of the four vessels  to serve the Qatar expansion project is scheduled for the third quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025.

MOL announced in April 2022 it had signed a long-term charter contract for four newbuild LNG carriers with QatarEnergy.

Track record

“MOL's solid track record in building LNG carriers in China in addition to its performance in the LNG carrier business and safety in navigation and cargo handling earned high regard from QatarEnergy, leading to the successful conclusion of the contract.” MOL said at the time.

QatarEnergy has been developing the North Field Expansion Project to boost its LNG ouput.

The North Field expansion will increase Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum to 126 MTPA with the carrier fleet programme alongside, which could amount to 80 vessels, including the replacement of older ships in the current fleet.

The scope of the first phase of the expansion at the Ras Laffan production complex involves an additional four Trains, each with 8.0 MTPA of output.

Qatar has the southern portion of the North Field in Gulf waters that will provide the huge feed-gas resources and the other part of the field is under the jurisdiction of neighbouring Iran. 

French maritime storage technology company GTT has been chosen to design the fuel tanks of 12 new liquefied natural gas-powered container vessels ordered from China by the global CMA CGM shipping group based in the French port of Marseille.

March 19 (LNGJ) - WE Tech Solutions of Finland, the shipping consultancy and equipment provider offering  energy efficiency designs, has received a repeat order from Jiangnan Shipyard Group Co. in China to deliver its “Solution Four” package for efficient power distribution for the third new battery and LNG-powered Pure Car Truck Carrier (PCTC) ordered by United European Car Carriers (UECC). WE Tech was previously contracted by Jiangnan Shipyard to deliver the same solution to a series of two PCTC vessels of UECC.

   The WE Tech Solution Four includes WE Drive, Direct Drive Permanent Magnet Shaft Generator, DC-link power distribution, an Energy Storage System (ESS) and the Energy Management System (EMS). WE Tech said this would place UECC’s new vessels beyond the International Maritime Organization’s target for a 40 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2030.  “We take this repeat order as shipowner and shipyard’s acknowledgement of our reliable and highly environmental-sustainable solutions,” said Martin Andtfolk, Sales Manager of WE Tech.

Exmar, the Belgian shipping company with more than 40 vessels in its fleet now mostly focused on the liquefied petroleum gas business, said the outbreak of the coronavirus in China has caused further delays in the release by the Bank of China of $40 million under the “Tango FLNG” loan facility. 

Exmar, which has undergone financial troubles over the past couple of years, had previously said the China Export Credit Insurance Corp. had approved the release of around $40 million from a debt service reserve account under the “Tango FLNG” loan conditions.

The “Tango FLNG” vessel is chartered to Argentina and has exported three cargoes from the port of Bahia Blanca where it produces LNG from pipeline feed-gas.

The vessel was built at the Chinese Wison shipyard in Nantong and delivered to Exmar in 2017. It had initially been destined for a project in Colombia in South America that was cancelled.

Exmar said it was awaiting for the offices of the Chinese authorities to officially re-open and the tranche of money to be paid.

The vessel, chartered by Argentine energy company YPF, formally started its operations in June 2019 and the 10-year charter term began in September 2019.

The “Tango FLNG” production barge can produce around 500,000 tonnes per annum of LNG for domestic sale or export.

Exmar continues to manage 10 LNG floating storage and regasification units, though is not directly involved in regasification projects with former partner Excelerate Energy of the US.

Exmar added in its financial update that under the ongoing arbitration procedure on an FSRU barge with commodities group Gunvor, the financing of the asset could not be completed.

“Meanwhile Exmar obtained a further extension of its bridge loans until the end of February and of certain other capital expenditure until mid-March,” explained the Antwerp-based company.

Exmar is still caught up in a legal dispute with Gunvor over an FSRU barge that was also delivered from the Wison Nantong shipyard in China in 2017.

The Exmar barge with 25,000 cubic metres capacity was the subject of a 10-year Charter to Gunvor signed in October 2018.

Gunvor had been expecting to deploy the barge in Bangladesh. Then the Asian nation cancelled planned small-scale projects to concentrate on a larger venture.

Exmar has also made executive changes in January 2020 as it tries to improve finances after several setbacks to meet the challenges of the year ahead.

Among the changes, it has named Francis Mottrie in the new position of Deputy Chief Executive to work along Nicolas Saverys, the Group CEO.

Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French technology firm for designs of systems for the maritime transportation and storage of liquefied natural gas, has been chosen by Marseille-based shipping group CMA CGM to provide services for its LNG-powered container ships.

GTT said it would provide assistance for the commissioning, operation and maintenance of CMA CGM’s future 23,000 TFE (twenty-foot equivalent) LNG-powered container ships equipped with GTT membrane containment technologies. 

Paris-based GTT noted that with 18,600 cubic metres capacity LNG tanks, these ships will be the largest container ships in the world to use LNG as fuel.

Bunkering vessels owned by French energy major Total and Mitsui Osk Lines of Japan will supply 300,000 tonnes per annum of LNG fuel to CMA CGM and its nine ultra-large newbuild containerships set to operate on the Europe-Asia trade route.

The GTT service package includes the training of crews of the CMA CGM fleet through the provision of the G-Sim training simulator, specially adapted to replicate the LNG operations of CMA CGM vessels.

“GTT will also provide on board technical assistance during the commissioning of LNG tanks and during the first bunkering operations,” explained the tanks designer.

It explained that, if necessary, CMA CGM may use a GTT service called “Hears” to obtain 24/7 technical assistance. 

“Thanks to the data continuously collected on board, the GTT teams will be able to assist and advise CMA CGM teams as closely as possible,” said GTT.

“In addition, the analysis tools integrated in the connected version will allow a follow-up over time of the tanks and their insulation spaces,” it added.

The company said its GTT services portfolio facilitates a smooth entry into the world of LNG for ship-owners.

“We are constantly expanding our range of services to meet the new expectations of ship-owners and are therefore very pleased to be able to support CMA CGM in the commissioning, operation and maintenance of its LNG-powered vessels,”  said Philippe Berterottière, Chairman and Chief Executive of GTT.

CMA CGM is one of the world’s largest container vessel operators with over 500 ships.

The first of the ultra-large LNG-power containerships took to the water at the Shanghai Jiangnan-Changxing Shipyard in October 2019 at an event attended by Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM.

The first of the nine newbuilds was named “CMA CGM Jacques Saade” after the shipping line’s Beirut-born founder who died in June 2018. 

The American Bureau of Shipping, the US classification society, said a small-scale LNG carrier, the world’s first such vessel to be fitted with an innovative cargo containment system based on IMO requirements for independent type A tanks, has been delivered to the shipping line from the Chinese shipbuilders.