LNG

QatarEnergy the leading global LNG producer and with three growth projects being developed, has signed 19 more charter contracts with Asian owners from countries like China and Malaysia under Qatar’s LNG fleet expansion programme.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line, increased fiscal first-half profits and revenues from shipping liquefied natural gas and other fuels worldwide as it also ordered five new LNG carriers to add to its fleet of 58 owned and co-owned LNG vessels.

NYK’s revenues soared by 30 percent for the six months from April to the end of September 2022 and amounted to 1.36 trillion Japanese yen ($9.31 billion) compared with 1.05 trillion yen ($7.16Bln) in the fiscal first-half of 2021.

Profits jumped by 71 percent and came to 706.06Bln ($4.81Bln) versus 411.32Bln yen ($2.80Bln) in the same six months of last year.

NYK said the profits grew even as bunkered fuel costs for its fleet of ships jumped by 76 percent year-on-year to average $839.95 per ton versus $477.42 per ton in the same six months of 2021.

The NYK LNG carriers are in the energy fleet of the company’s Bulk Shipping division.

The company’s fleet comprises 658 owned and co-owned vessels, including in the largest sector 382 bulk carriers, 113 energy tankers and associated vessels, 108 car carriers and 55 containerships.

Contracts

“In the LNG carriers unit, the results were steady based on support from the long-term contracts that generate stable earnings. Also, in the offshore business, FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading), drill ship and shuttle tankers were generally steady as expected,” said NYK.

Overall Bulk Shipping revenues came to 616.4 billion yen ($4.20Bln) in the six-month period.

In the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market, NYK said that there was a further rebounded off market lows from July. Then, after oil prices fell in mid-August following the release from the strategic petroleum reserve in the United States, shipments of oil from the Middle East and US in particular rose to destinations in Europe and Asia.

“Due in part to this, the use of VLCCs increased, causing supply-and- demand conditions to tighten and the market to rapidly recover. Thereafter, the higher shipment volumes continued into September,” explained NYK.

“In the petrochemical tanker market, due to the impact of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, the origin of shipments bound for Europe shifted from Russia to the United States, Middle East and India, resulting in longer sailing distances,” the company added.

NYK also said that a consortium it is part of had signed a long-term time-charter contract with QatarEnergy for five LNG carriers for delivery between 2025 and 2026 for Qatar's expansion of LNG production.

The partners of NYK in the newbuilds contract are Malaysian shipping company MISC Group and China LNG Shipping.

Shanghai yard

The joint-venture companies have executed shipbuilding contracts for the five vessels with 174,000 cubic metres capacity with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of Shanghai.

“Over the past 39 years since the delivery of the LNG carrier ‘Echigo Maru’ in 1983, NYK has continued to enhance its LNG safety and expertise and worldwide LNG transport network,” said the company.

“The skills that NYK has acquired in safe and optimized navigation, the construction of LNG carriers, and high-level ship-management quality have earned high regard from QatarEnergy, leading to the successful conclusion of this contract,” declared the Chiyoda City-based shipping line.

“NYK and QatarEnergy have had a long-term relationship with several existing projects and the relationship will be further extended through this contract,” it added.

NYK said these five vessels will be equipped with the latest propulsion in the X-DF 2.1 iCER engines designed by Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD), headquartered in Switzerland.

The X-DF low-speed, dual-fuel engines use gas admitted at low pressure and will reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency.

The company added that the five LNG newbuilds will be around 299 metres in length with a moulded breadth of 46.40M and with speed capability of 19.5 knots.

MISC Group, the Malaysian shipping and engineering company with 32 LNG carriers in its operations and six ethane carriers, posted an increase in annual revenues and  LNG shipping earnings rose.

MISC Group, the Malaysian shipping company, has completed its first liquefied natural gas bunkering operation in US waters off Port Canaveral in Florida for one of the LNG-powered oil tankers owned by subsidiary AET.

Avenir LNG, a company owned by Norwegian shipping and infrastructure operators, said its newest 20,000 cubic metres capacity LNG bunkering vessel has been launched in China and it would be delivered later in 2021.

The “Avenir Allegiance” entered the water at the Zhoushan Changhong Sinopacific Shipyard Co. in China’s eastern Zheijang province.

“The vessel is scheduled to be delivered from the yard in the third quarter of this year and she will join the Avenir LNG fleet as the world’s largest LNG bunkering vessel,” said Avenir.

Avenir is a joint venture owned by London-based Norwegian shipping and storage company Stolt-Nielsen and its peer fleet owners and project companies, Höegh LNG and Golar LNG.

The company said that the “Avenir Allegiance” would be Cayman Island-flagged and is the fourth of six newbuilds delivered to Avenir.

Avenir’s first newbuild delivery, the “Avenir Advantage”, took place in October 2020 and will be followed by the “Avenir Accolade”, the “Avenir Aspiration”, the “Avenir Allegiance”, the “Avenir Ascension” and the “Avenir Achievement” during 2021.

“We are delighted to see the latest, and largest, vessel in the Avenir LNG fleet being successfully launched by our partners CIMC SOE,” said Peter Mackey, Chief Executive of Avenir LNG Limited.

“We look forward to taking delivery of the ‘Avenir Allegiance’ later this year,” he added.

Avenir CEO Mackey stated that as the largest LNG bunkering vessel in the world, the “Avenir Allegiance” was a clear demonstration of Avenir’s commitment to developing new LNG supply chains.

“She will play a critical role in helping the shipping industry to transition to LNG as a more environmentally sustainable fuel,” stated Mackey.

“The ‘Avenir Allegiance’ will operate as both an LNG bunkering vessel and an LNG supply vessel,’ explained the CEO.

“This highly flexible vessel underscores our strategy of simultaneously unlocking multiple new LNG markets with multi-functional assets.,” said Mackey.

Avenir is building up a fleet of LBVs vessels of between 7,500 cubic metres capacity and 20,000 cubic metres capacity.

Another of the LBVs, the “Avenir Advantage”, was delivered in November 2020 to the Future Horizon joint venture comprising Malaysia’s MISC Group and Avenir.

Additionally, Malaysian energy company Petronas has chartered the “Avenir Advantage” from Future Horizon for a period of three years.

Norwegian firm Stolt-Nielsen started up the small-scale LNG sector firm Avenir in 2015 and its two investors, Golar and Höegh, each have 22.5 percent of Avenir to Stolt-Nielsen’s 45 percent.

The experienced shipping partners of Avenir are aiming to build up the market in small-scale LNG supply to off-grid industry for power generation and transportation fuel, as well as providing infrastructure to support the development of LNG as a marine fuel.

Avenir additionally has an 80 percent stake in a small-scale LNG import project company Higas on the Italian island of Sardinia, while the local partners are Gas & Heat and CPL Concordia, each holding 10 percent of the Sardinia venture.

Avenir LNG, a company owned by Norwegian shipping and infrastructure companies, said its newest 7,500 cubic metres capacity LNG bunkering vessel has been launched in China and it would be delivered later in 2021.

The American Bureau of Shipping, the US classification society, said the first of an order of 12 very large ethane carriers (VLECs) with LNG notation and built to ABS Class has been delivered from the Goeje shipyard in South Korea of Samsung Heavy Industries.

The “Seri Everest” was handed over to Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical (STL) and is the first of a phase-one order by STL which was subsequently sold to the Malaysian shipping line, MISC Group.

The vessel with more than 98,000 cubic metres capacity is the largest VLEC ever built.

A second phase of the order also includes six vessels, bringing the total to 12, scheduled for trade from the US to China to support STL’s ethane cracker facility in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu.

“This is the first VLEC to be delivered with the LNG Cargo-Ready notation that was released by ABS in 2019,” said the US class society.

“The notation provides assurance to owners and charterers that the VLEC can be upgraded to trade LNG cargoes in the future,” ABS explained.

Christopher J. Wiernicki, Chairman, President and Chief Executive of Houston, Texas-based ABS said that as part of the shale-gas revolution, shipping of liquefied ethane was developing into a significant new market.

“At ABS we have supported this development from the early stages and are happy to see that this leadership role is being recognized in the current VLEC market,” added Wiernicki.

Yee Yang Chien, President and Group Chief Executive of MISC, said he was proud to welcome “Seri Everest” as the first VLEC in MISC’s existing fleet.

“With this first delivery, our VLEC has set a new benchmark in the ethane market,” added Yee.

“The ‘Seri Everest’ has the capacity of transporting large-scale ethane over long distances while ensuring the highest level of safety and reliability,” stated the MISC CEO.

“We hope to continue to capitalize on this opportunity as we are confident that we will gain a strong foothold to cater to the increasing demand in this niche segment,” said Yee.

The MISC CEO noted that he was pleased that the “Seri Everest” was delivered according to schedule amidst the disruption caused by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Hohyun Jeong, SHI Executive Vice President for Engineering Operations, said that it was great to have the VLEC delivered on time during the pandemic as well as with the addition of the newly introduced ABS LNG Cargo Ready notation.

“The VLEC has been built with a cargo containment system for dual cargo loading and the cargo-handling system can be converted for LNG at any time, as needed,” Jeong explained.

“It has been all thanks to the close cooperation with ABS, STL and MISC working from anywhere, regardless of location,” he added.

ABS is the leader in provision of classification services to VLEC owners.

The US class society was chosen to oversee the very first order for six dedicated VLECs in 2014 by the Indian company, Reliance Industries.

ABS said the 87,000 cubic metres capacity VLECs have been successfully trading for Reliance and laid the foundation for the next generation of larger VLECs.

Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Group (MHB), which offers dry-docking and repairs for LNG carriers and the construction of processing modules and platforms, reported a widening of losses in the second-quarter earnings.

French energy major Total said it signed a pioneering agreement to charter its first two Very Large Crude Carrier-type oil tankers equipped with liquefied natural gas propulsion.

Dec 6 (LNGJ) - French LNG storage technology firm GTT received an order from the South Korean Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard for tanks for two new LNG carriers on behalf of Malaysian ship-owner MISC Group.

Each vessel will have capacity of 174,000 cubic metres and will be fitted with the GTT Mark III Flex-plus membrane containment system when delivered in the first quarter of 2023. “This new order from our long-term partners SHI and MISC is proof of our mutual trust and the performance of our technologies,” said Philippe Berterottière, GTT’s Chairman and Chief Executive.