LNG

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.

Gaztransport and Technigaz, (GTT), the French storage tank technology company, said it received an order from Sembcorp Marine shipyard in Singapore concerning the tank designs of a liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel as fuel and small-scale LNG activities expand in Asia.

The Sembcorp order was from the shipowner Indah Singa Maritime Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL).

GTT said the bunkering vessel with 12,000 cubic metres capacity would be fitted with the Mark III Flex membrane containment system.

The ship’s delivery from Sembcorp is scheduled for the first half of 2021.

“We are very pleased to receive this first order from Sembcorp Marine less than one year after signing a license agreement,” said Philippe Berterottiere, GTT Chairman and Chief Executive.

“This new LNG bunker vessel project strengthens our aspirations for the development of the use of LNG as a marine fuel and further demonstrates the relevance of GTT technologies for this type of application,” added the CEO.

The newbuild when it enters service will be chartered by Pavilion Energy to supply LNG fuel in the Port of Singapore.

MOL will own the vessel and the Singaporean bunker services provider, Sinanju, will help manage the ship.

Pavilion, the energy company owned by Singapore wealth fund Temasek, said it had received a S$3 million (US$2.2 million) grant under the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore’s (MPA) LNG bunkering co-funding programme.

The newbuild will have twin membrane LNG cargo tanks for more efficient boil-off gas management and will fuel ships mainly for the coastal and short-sea trade.

Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of MPA, has said she was extremely pleased to have LNG fueling at the world’s largest bunkering port.

“We look forward to this collaboration catering to growing future demand for ship-to-ship LNG bunkering in Singapore,” she added.

The Singapore LNG import terminal on Jurong Island completed modifications in February 2019 to its secondary jetty and was now able to handle small-scale LNG carriers.

The terminal owner said that vessels with capacities of between 2,000 cubic metres and 10,000 cubic metres could now re-load break-bulk cargoes for delivery to small power plants and other customers in the region.

The modifications include the installation of a new marine loading arm and gangway, as well as new facilities for securing smaller ships at the jetty.