LNG

Seatrium Limited of Singapore, formerly Sembcorp Marine Ltd and the Dutch family-owned dredging and shipping company Van Oord, marked the successful completion and delivery of the “Vox Alexia”, Van Oord's third dual-fuel LNG-powered Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD), during a sailaway event in the Asian city state.

The delivery of the “Vox Alexia”, the final unit of a series of three dual-fuel LNG-powered dredgers, adds to the earlier completions of the first and second newbuilds “Vox Ariane” and “Vox Apolonia” delivered in April and December 2022 respectively.

Both sister vessels are currently in service and contributing to Van Oord’s cleaner fleet operations.

Seatrium said that following delivery, the “Vox Alexia’ would set off from Singapore for further preparatory trials by the customer prior to being put into service later in 2023.

“Leveraging the experience of constructing two earlier units, and an integrated Seatrium-Van Oord team approach, the project was completed with good safety performance as well as stringent quality and performance standards,” said a statement from Seatrium and Van Oord.

Merger

Seatrium underwent a corporate transformation to a new brand and with its name changed from Sembcorp Marine Ltd following its merger with Keppel Offshore & Marine.

Seatrium and Van Oord added that the “Vox Alexia” was built to the requirements of the International Maritime Organization's Tier III regulations and construction was overseen by French maritime classification society Bureau Veritas.

The vessel has a hopper capacity of 10,500 cubic metres and incorporates highly automated marine and dredging systems.

The TSHD is equipped with a suction pipe with submerged e-driven dredge pump, two shore discharge dredge pumps, five bottom doors, a total installed power of 14,500 kW and is able to accommodate 22 persons.

“We are very pleased to now add ‘Vox Alexia’ to our fleet in addition to her sister vessels ‘Vox Ariane’ and ‘Vox Apolonia’, and as such contribute even more to the energy transition and decarbonisation of our fleet,” said Harold WM Linssen, Director of the Ship Management Department at Van Oord.

More projects

“We also look forward to utilising and further developing the established synergy with Seatrium in upcoming projects,” added Linssen.

Tan Leong Peng, Managing Director of the Seatrium subsidiary, Seatrium New Energy Limited, said that the successful delivery of the latest dual-fuelled vessel with LNG capability would contribute to Van Oord’s greener shipping operations.

“We are pleased to deliver ‘Vox Alexia’, the final unit in the series of three highly automated dual-fuel newbuild dredgers,” said Tan.

“All three TSHDs run on cleaner LNG fuel and integrate greener features for enhanced efficiency, improved performance and environmentally sustainable operations,” he stated.

European maritime classification society DNV said that ship owners placed orders for 16 liquefied natural gas-powered vessels in February 2022, mostly for containerships and car carriers even as LNG bunkering fuel prices continued to increase.

DNV said that compared with January 2022, orders dropped by 24 vessels but January included around 15 vessels from December 2021.

The class society said that according to its data September 2021 still holds the record with 35 orders for LNG-powered vessels.

“Order intake for LNG-fueled newbuilds continues at a high pace, despite increasingly uncertain outlook for gas prices,” said Martin Wold, principal consultant at DNV.

“The total confirmed fleet has now reached 710 ships,” he said.

Wold noted that Seaspan Marine Corp. contributed to extra LNG bunkering supply capacity with their order for two bunkering vessels in China.

Newbuilds

The February count includes orders from companies such as London-based Zodiac Maritime, Eastern Pacific Shipping, also headquartered in the UK, H-Line Shipping of South Korea and Mitsui Osk Lines of Japan.

According to DNV, there are now 269 LNG-powered ships already in operation with LNG-fuelled car and passenger ferries continuing to lead the way with 44 in operation.

The LNG-fuelled fleet also includes 31 oil-chemical tankers, 37 offshore supply vessels, 37 tugs and 32 containerships.

As for vessels on order, LNG-powered containerships account for a big part of the orders with 123 units.

Owners had also ordered 60 LNG-powered crude oil carriers and the fleet stands at 87, and with 60 car carriers rising to 67 and 52 bulk carriers and with new orders taking it to 63. Ferries taking cars and passengers now number 53 on order and in operation.

There are also now 33 cruise liners for the LNG bunkering market, including newbuilds.

These statistics do not include smaller inland vessels and barges that are part of the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp (ARA) refining hub in northwest Europe.

DNV added that the recent surge in LNG prices appeared not to have dented enthusiasm for LNG-powered tonnage orders.

Data shows that LNG priced in fuel oil terms at the Dutch port of Rotterdam in February 2022 stood at $1,585 per tonne, up from $412 per tonne in February 2021, while Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil at the Dutch port gained $238 per tonnes over the same period to now cost $731 per tonne.