LNG

South Korean LNG shipbuilder, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), said it cancelled the last of three LNG carrier orders from 2020 to serve the Yamal LNG export facility in Arctic Russia, operated by natural gas company Novatek.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) of South Korea said it was awarded two combined orders worth 1.84 trillion Korean won ($1.53 billion) to build two LNG carriers for Greek company Maran Gas Maritime under the Angelicoussis Shipping Group and six containerships for another European commercial line.

French liquefied natural gas storage technology firm Gaztranzport and Technigaz (GTT) and its South Korean shipyard partner Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering received an order for the tank design of two new LNG carriers from Greek shipowner Maran Gas Maritime.

June 23 (LNGJ) - Hyundai LNG Shipping Co. of South Korea, whose fleet comprises eight LNG carriers and one liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessel, has ordered another LNG tanker from the Korean shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

   The order was revealed by French storage technology firm GTT as the provider of the tanks. GTT said it had received an order from its partner DSME for the tank design of a new carrier for Hyundai LNG shipping. “The vessel will offer a capacity of 174,000 cubic metres and will be fitted with the GTT No. 96 GW membrane containment system,” said GTT. The vessel will be delivered at the end of 2023.

The American Bureau of Shipping, the US maritime classification society, has approved a specialized near-shore LNG Floating Production Storage Offloading Vessel (FPSO) hull developed by the South Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

The ABS said it issued and Approval in Principle for the wide-breadth, single row near-shore LNG FPSO with a jetty-moored system.

The approval is the completion of a joint development project between DSME and ABS, combining the latest industry trends of shipbuilding practices and ABS rules to advance LNG safety standards.
 
The 64-metres wide, barge-shaped hull features a No. 96 single row containment system from French technology firm Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT) with storage capacity of 209,000 cubic metres.

It accommodates a jetty-moored system and approximately 40,000-metric tonnes of topside modules, which may produce between 3.0 million tonnes per annum and 3.5 MTPA of LNG.
 
“Due to wider breadth and different hull configuration compared to existing standard LNG carriers, various sloshing model tests have been carried out with the 6-DOF sloshing rig, driven by electric servomotors, at DSME’s sloshing research center in Korea,” explained ABS.

“Through these extensive tests, DSME have verified that the new hull design and the membrane cargo containment system (CCS) can withstand the sloshing impact loads under actual operating conditions,” added the US class society.
 
Matt Tremblay, ABS Senior Vice President for Global Offshore, noted that the US firm has been a part of the FPSO industry since its earliest days and has played a key role in the development of the sector.

“The benefit from that involvement is that we’ve been able to both witness and participate in the evolution of FPSOs in size, complexity and technology,” added Tremblay.

“This project is the next step in that evolution, and we are proud to be able to support it,” he stated.
 
Odin Kwon, an Executive Vice President of DSME and Chief Technology Officer, was delighted with the approval.

“As today’s offshore oil and gas market demands more cost efficient and fast-track projects, this single row CCS tank configuration will become a desirable model for our clients and this new line-up together with the two-row CCS configuration will provide greater flexibility to fulfil various needs,” he said.

ABS noted that it has been working with floating gas concepts for many years, including the first purpose-built liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) floating storage and offloading unit, delivered in 1997, and the first LPG FPSO in 2005.

Gaztransport and Technigaz, the French technology designer of LNG maritime and onshore storage systems, has confirmed it has doubled up on tank orders from the top liquefied natural gas import project in China by receiving a similar scale of an order from the leading export venture in Russia.

GTT said it received an order from the South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for the tank design of two floating storage units (FSUs), the largest such facilities ever built, on behalf of GTLK, the Russian state leasing agency.

Each FSU will have a capacity of 361,600 cubic metres and will be fitted with the No. 96 GW membrane cryogenic containment system, a technology developed by GTT.

The Paris-based company said their delivery is scheduled for the end of 2022.

These two FSUs will be located in the Murmansk region and in the Bay of Kamchatka in respectively the West and East of the Russian Federation.

They will be employed in the Arctic LNG II project of the Russian LNG producer and natural gas company Novatek for its trans-shipment ventures.

GTT in late June 2020 also received an order for China’s largest ever LNG storage tanks for the Nangang import terminal proposed for Tianjin City, east of Beijing.

GTT said its order came from the building company China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Co. (HQC) for the design of two membrane full-containment LNG tanks, each with net capacity of 220,000 cubic metres.

This order follows the agreement signed in November 2019 between GTT and the Chinese major state-owned company Beijing Enterprises Group, on the occasion of the presidential visit to China of French President Emmanuel Macron, in the presence of Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The Nangang terminal is being developed by Beijing Gas Group, giving the port city area of three import facilities to guarantee energy supply security to the Chinese capital.

The Chinese import terminal will have an initial 5 million tonnes per annum of capacity and adds to the supply available from Sinopec’s Tianjin North import terminal and the floating storage and regasification unit capacity deployed in recent years by China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Beijing Gas is mainly engaged in city-gas distribution and supplies more than 10 billion cubic metres per annum to the Chinese capital and surrounding areas.

The new Tianjin terminal project has already been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission.

Beijing Gas said its terminal in Tianjin was expected to be completed by 2022 and would include emergency reserves comprising 10 extra storage tanks.

Russia is proceeding with the world’s largest LNG trans-shipment facilities at the ports of Murmansk and Kamchatka and has signed contracts with a South Korean shipyard to build two floating storage barges as part of the project.

German marine engine maker MAN Energy Solutions, a supplier of propulsion for many of the world’s LNG-powered vessels as well as the most modern LNG carriers,
has signed a cooperation agreement with two South Korean companies.

MAN Energy said its accord with shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and the South Korean engine-maker HSD Engine, formerly the Doosan Engine Company, have signed a strategic agreement to cooperate in the computerized aspects of marine engine systems.

MAN Energy, whose main shipping solutions base is in Denmark, has a market-leading two-stroke, dual-fuel portfolio.

It recently confirmed landmark sales of more than 250 dual-fuel engines, all running on liquefied natural gas or other clean fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas or methanol.

Man Energy is best known in the LNG sector for its speciality power package in the electronically-controlled, gas-injection (MEGI) engine for LNG carriers and other vessels.

The signing of the Man Energy, DSME and HSD Engine digitization agreement took place in Copenhagen.

The three companies aim to cooperate in areas such as the programming of marine engine solution and auxiliary systems data, the collection and analysis of the data and the integration of it with smart-ship platforms and intelligent diagnostic solutions.

“MAN Energy is determined to drive the digital transition of the marine industry”, said Brian Ostergaard Sørensen, Head of Research and Development in the two-stroke business at MAN.

“We strongly believe that this transition can best be achieved through cooperation and collaboration including customers and providers across the industry,” added Sørensen.

“The agreement at hand is a step in this direction and brings together market leading expertise in the fields of shipbuilding and engine design, manufacturing and operation to explore options for a joint digital development in an important segment of the maritime market,” he stated.

MAN, based in Augsburg, Germany, is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group and its Man Energy Solutions unit was formerly known as MAN Diesel & Turbo and was rebranded a year ago.

“DSME is conducting R&D activities to combine digital technology to various fields in shipbuilding including collaboration with marine engine makers,” said DSME’s R&D division.

The Korean shipbuilder also emphasized the need for continuous innovation to enhance DSME’s technological leadership in shipping.

HSD said that through this strategic cooperation agreement, the Korean company would share its own service experiences with DSME and MAN Energy Solutions.

“Furthermore, we will also continue our role as a pioneer engine manufacturer in the field of smart ships in order to serve our customers a real-time monitoring service with remote support through the advanced engine diagnosis technology,” added HSD.