LNG

May 7 (LNGJ) - Two Japanese and global LNG market participants, energy engineering company Chiyoda Corp. and one of Japan’s main trading houses, Mitsubishi Corp., have concluded a general licence agreement on developing carbon-capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies.

   The accord is a strategic collaboration agreement granting Chiyoda the licence of the trade-marked “KM CDR Process” and the “Advanced KM CDR Process”, a CO2 capture technology jointly developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Co., and to be applied to CO2 capture projects in Japan. “The partnership with MHI aims to build on our engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) activity, further strengthening Chiyoda's CCUS project capabilities in the Japanese market,” said Chiyoda.

NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project on the Brownsville Ship Channel in Texas, has signed a 15-year sale and purchase agreement with French utility Engie as the need for LNG supplies in Europe becomes more urgent.

NextDecade Corp., the developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project on the Brownsville Ship Channel, has signed its second cargo supply accord in a month with a Chinese company.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co. has signed a contract to construct the first liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel to serve a growing base of LNG maritime fuel customers in Western Japan.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, signed the newbuild contract with Keys Bunkering West Japan Co. comprising a group of leading shipping and utility companies.

The new Japanese bunkering vessel with 3,500 cubic metres of LNG capacity will be built at MHI’s Shimonoseki Shipyard in Yamaguchi Prefecture with completion and handover scheduled for March 2024.

“The use of LNG propulsion for ships is attracting attention as a solution for compliance with regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mitsubishi Shipbuilding.

“The planned LNG bunkering vessel will have an electric main engine, and be equipped with a dual-fuel engine capable of using both LNG and heavy oil as fuel,” added the company.

Investors

Keys Bunkering West Japan is a joint venture company established in February 2022 to supply LNG fuel for ships in the Kyushu and Setouchi regions of the country.

The parties in the venture include Kyushu Electric Power Co, Shipping company Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), a unit of trading house Itochu and Saibu Gas Co., a gas utility based in Fukuoka in Northern Kyushu.

“Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, as part of MHI Group’s strategic initiatives for the energy transition, will make use of the gas-handling technologies and experience it has accumulated from building LNG carriers,” added the statement from the Yokohama-based company.

“Through this business project involving low environmental-impact LNG fuel, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, as a maritime system integrator, aims to further the decarbonization of the marine industry,” it stated.

The Mitsubishi newbuild when operating in gas mode will provide “exceptional environmental performance” with considerably reduced emissions such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide an sulfur oxide.

The company said the bunkering ship of 4,850 gross tonnage will be 82.4 metres in length with a beam of 18.2 metres and a 4.8 metres draft.

NextDecade, the US developer of the Rio Grande LNG export project along the Brownsville Ship Channel, has confirmed that a final investment decision for the venture would again be delayed, this time until the second half of 2022.

NextDecade, the developer of the currently dormant Rio Grande LNG export project along the Brownsville Ship Channel, has posted third-quarter earnings after a year of little activity prior to the global increase in prices and demand.

NextDecade Corp., the developer of the US Rio Grande LNG export project, has signed an agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan to install post-combustion carbon-capture technology at the facility proposed for the Port of Brownsville in Texas.

Japan, the world’s largest LNG importer, and the nation’s biggest engineering company, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, have identified Australia as a future global centre of the current likely fuel rivals to liquefied natural gas, green hydrogen and green ammonia.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, said the first unit of a liquefied natural gas supply system for marine dual-fuel engines has entered service with a pure car carrier (PCC) built by Shin Kurushima Toyohashi Shipbuilding.

The shipbuilding unit of Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been granted approval for a liquefied natural gas fuel gas supply system (FGSS) for marine four-stroke, dual-fuel engines.