LNG

Norwegian company Høglund Gas Solutions has signed a contract to provide a turnkey retrofit with LNG fuel capability for a Base Marine Norway-owned ship, the bulk and general carrier “Hannah Kristina”, which has US oil services company Halliburton as the end-charterer.

“The project aims to improve the vessel’s environmental footprint by converting the marine diesel oil-fuelled vessel into dual-fuel by supplying an LNG Fuel Gas Supply System (FGSS) alongside an upgrade with shore power connection,” said Høglund.

The project, led by Høglund, will require extensive collaboration between numerous stakeholders, including naval architects, engineering teams, a retrofit shipyard, various suppliers, the class society flag state and the vessel owners and operators.

“Høglund will therefore collaborate with long-time partners HB Hunte Engineering GmbH and Fiskerstrand Verft AS for the naval architecture and shipyard elements of the project, respectively. The entire project will be classed by DNV,” explained the Norwegian company.

The scope under the contract consists of a 250 cubic metres capacity FGSS with a dedicated Gas Control and Safety System to serve the already installed dual-fuel system with natural gas.

“In order to implement the appropriate safety measures following the requirements of the IGF-Code and improve the safety credentials of the ‘Hannah Kristina’, Høglund will be combining its extensive knowledge in gas, power and automation solutions with HB Hunte’s outstanding expertise in naval engineering to perform further modifications on the vessel,” the company explained.

“These will include the adjustment of the mooring arrangement in the LNG tank area and an upgrade to the ventilation system, among other conversions,” added Høglund.
The delivery of the retrofitted vessel is expected to take place in March 2022.

“The goal of this project is to upgrade a 20-year-old vessel with modern environmental credentials. With the use of LNG and battery power, the vessel will significantly reduce its carbon-dioxide and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions both while at sea and during harbour stays,” said Høglund.

Høglund said it would ensure that the complex stakeholder management aspect of the retrofit works will be run effectively and that this will result in a well-executed project.

“The technological and environmental transformation of shipping over the coming years is one of the biggest challenges facing our industry,” said Philipp Ulrich, Senior Project Manager at Høglund.

“To achieve this transformation in a commercially viable and minimally disruptive way, meaningful and well-coordinated collaborations are essential,” he added.

Jean-Marc Lopez, Vice President of Halliburton in Norway, explained the reasoning for the move.

“By utilizing ‘Hannah Kristina’, Halliburton has moved huge amounts of goods from road to sea, reducing the emission of CO2 and NOx,” he said.

“With the conversion of ‘Hannah Kristina’ from diesel to LNG and shore power, we take the reduction of CO2 and NOx a step further, in line with our strategy to continue to reduce the environmental footprint of our activities,” declared Lopez.

TechnipFMC, the company that has put on hold its de-merger into two separate entities for subsea and LNG projects because of Covid-19 and the oil slump, has launched with services firm Halliburton Company a new technology product for subsea wells.

TechnipFMC and Halliburton introduced their trade-marked Odassea system, which they described as the first distributed acoustic sensing solution for subsea wells.

“The technology platform enables operators to execute intervention-less seismic imaging and reservoir diagnostics to reduce total cost of ownership while improving reservoir knowledge,” they explained.

“The Odassea service integrates hardware and digital systems to strengthen digital capabilities in subsea reservoir monitoring and production optimization,” their statement added.

Halliburton provides the fiber optic sensing technology, completions and analysis for reservoir diagnostics while TechnipFMC provides the optical connectivity from the topside to the completions.

“Through the collaboration, operators can accelerate full field subsea fiber optic sensing, design and execution,” they stated.

TechnipFMC has two main offices in both Houston and Paris and said in March 2020 it was delaying plans to separate into two companies because of volatile market conditions created by the coronavirus outbreak.

The company had first announced the proposal in August 2019 and planning was well advanced when the pandemic and oil price slump impacted markets in mid-March.

TechnipFMC then said on March 16, 2020 that the global pandemic, a sharp drop in oil prices and heightened volatility in global financial markets had “created a market environment that is not currently conducive to the company’s separation” plans.

On the latest joint venture, TechnipFMC and Halliburton said they were delivering solutions with the technology to multiple subsea projects at all stages from conceptual design to execution and installation.

“This project enables an enhanced level of reservoir understanding for our customers and expands our unique integrated subsea solution,” said Christina Johansen, Vice President of TechnipFMC Subsea Product Manufacturing.

”We are proving that we can leverage the competencies and know-how to drive the change our industry needs for a higher level of sustainability,” she stated.

With the de-merger on hold TechnipFMC has still overhauled its divisions with Onshore-Offshore having been renamed Technip Energies, in-line with the new scope of the business.

The company said in its most recent earnings that despite the challenges and a softening of near-term LNG markets, the long-term fundamentals for natural gas, and LNG in particular, remained strong.

The two other TechnpFMC divisions are Subsea and Surface Technologies.