LNG

Deltamarin, the Finnish ship design company based in the port of Turku and which is part of the China Merchants Group conglomerate headquartered in Hong Kong, has received approvals in principle from the Nordic DNV classification society.

Woodside Energy, the operator of the North West Shelf and Pluto LNG plants in Western Australia, is having to undertake remedial work and a cost review of its biggest overseas project, the Sangomar Field Development offshore Senegal in West Africa, and has pushed back the start-up because of work to be undertaken in Singapore on the production facility.

Chinese shipyards are benefiting from the surge in orders for newbuilds from the liquefied natural gas sector and more LNG berths are being made available, while oil and petroleum product tankers and containership orders are also increasing.

The early 2023 LNG shipping market has opened with a “trembling uncertainty” in the LNG freight market with charter rates in the first few weeks alone falling 30 percent in the Atlantic Basin and 16 percent in the Far East,

Sept 27 (LNGJ) - Kosmos Energy, the shareholder along with UK major BP in the floating LNG export project offshore Senegal and Mauritania, said the completed floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit for the venture that had broken free from the quayside during a typhoon at a Chinese shipyard on September 15 had been returned to the quayside.

   Kosmos, based in Dallas, Texas, reported the incident after Typhoon Muifa had passed through the Shanghai region and China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry shipyard in Qidong. “Inspections conducted to date have not identified any significant damage. The forward plan is to complete all inspections and incorporate the findings into the remaining work scope prior to sailaway,” said Kosmos.

China’s Cosco Shipping Heavy Industry said it had completed the construction of the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit that will be deployed as part of the BP-led floating LNG export project offshore the West African nations of Mauritania and Senegal.

Kosmos Energy, based in Dallas, Texas, is the partner of BP in the joint venture centred on the Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim gas fields, the first phase of which is about 80 percent complete.

The first Mauritania-Senegal FLNG production facility is scheduled to have first gas in early 2023.

The Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim LNG project has the FPSO as one of its key installations.

As part of support for the FPSO, mooring piles were pre-installed offshore while Cosco Shipping was completing the facility.

Cosco Shipping confirmed it had completed the construction of the FPSO at its Qidong shipyard and a completion ceremony had been held.

Dimensions

The Chinese company said the FPSO is 270 metres in length, 54.5 metres wide, 31.5 metres deep and the living quarters can accommodate 140 people.

Cosco was responsible for the FPSO’s main hull and living quarters, as well as the construction of topside modules.

“This FPSO is a key part of the Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim LNG project and will soon sail to Mauritania and Senegal to create a new energy hub in Africa,” added a statement.

In addition to the FPSO, a floating liquefaction plant is being completed at Singapore’s Keppel Shipyard.

This involves the conversion to a liquefaction facility of the conventional LNG carrier, the “Gimi”, which will have 2.5 million tonne per annum of output.

The FPSO will process gas from the Tortue-Ahmeyim field, removing heavier hydrocarbon components, prior to delivering it to the FLNG hull.

The Greater Tortue-Ahmeyim project is expected to have a second phase producing gas on the Mauritania-Senegal maritime border in partnership with the national oil and gas companies of Senegal and Mauritania, Petrosen and SMHPM respectively.

Kanfer Shipping AS, the Norwegian-based company focused on small-scale LNG transportation and LNG bunkering, has signed a construction contract for two newbuilds with the Chinese shipyard Taizhou Wuzhou Shipbuilding Co. and with ambitions to build up a larger fleet of small and medium-scale LNG delivery vessels.

The first two vessels are scheduled for delivery by the second half of 2023, with the option for the Taizhou Wuzhou yard, based in China's eastern province of Zhejiang,  to build additional ships.

Kanfer said the Norwegian firm, CGR Arctic Marine AS, had come up with a concept design for the two LNG bunker and distribution ships, including their specialized cargo and gas processing plants to address industry needs.

The initial two small-scale carriers will have capacity of 6,000 cubic metres and the firm contract followed a letter of intent signed in January 2021.

The CGR design includes mono-tank design, with simple arrangement and minimal boil-off and pure gas-electric power production combined with hybrid battery technology.

The manoeuvrability will come from Azipull thrusters and a bow thruster combined with a joystick operation.

Kanfer said “significant capital expenditure savings’ will come from choosing LNG fuel propulsion over dual-fueled design.

“This is an important step for Kanfer in realizing its goal to provide cost-efficient and environmentally friendly bunker vessels,” said Stig Anders Hagen, Chief Executive of Kanfer.

“Having strong cooperation with blue-chip shipping companies and LNG terminal owners has positioned Kanfer to move forward ith these two new LNG bunkering vessels,” explained Hagen.

“This is just the start. We will be building a large fleet of small-scale and medium-scale LNG distribution and bunkering ships,” the CEO declared.

“We see a rapidly expanding market for LNG bunker vessels as the world maritime industry continues to pivot towards its decarbonisation goals through LNG,” stated Hagen.

Kanfer noted that CGR founder, Captain Bård Nordberg, had already led the design and construction of 10 small-scale gas carriers at the Chinese shipyard, including several LNG vessels.

“Such extensive ship-building experience is unique in this space, and Kanfer is excited to leverage this,” said the company.

March 10 (LNGJ) - Qatar Petroleum, along with several leading international LNG players, have signed a multi-party agreement with LNT Marine, the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding of China to collaborate on the development of new medium and large LNG carrier designs. The Qataris said the agreement paved the way for the establishment of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) targeting the development of new LNG carrier designs using the LNT A-BOX LNG cargo containment system.

   Other signatories to the agreement include Qatargas and affiliates of ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total. The LNT A-BOX LNG cargo system is a new design recently deployed on the 45,000 cubic metres capacity ABS-classed vessel “Saga Dawn”, which entered commercial service in 2020. “We are pleased to collaborate with LNT Marine, ABS, and SWS to introduce new designs utilizing innovative technologies,” said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, President and Chief Executive of Qatar Petroleum.

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.

Jiangnan Shipyard Group, one of China's largest shipbuilders, said it was set to sign an agreement to construct five 15,000 TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, dual-fuel container ships with LNG propulsion capabilities.