LNG

The first Ultra Large Container Vessel to will be joined by ‘Champs Elysées’ and seven other ships

LNG News Editor

The France-based global container shipping line, CMA CGM, has seen the first of nine LNG-powered vessels join its fleet and the ship’s maiden voyage started on the “French Asia” route calling at 12 ports in 84 days.

Venture Global has told regulators it was making steady progress on the Calcasieu Pass LNG export plant in Louisiana, expected to come on stream in 2022 along with the TransCameron Pipeline, though recent work was hampered by the very active hurricane season on the Gulf Coast.

Calcasieu Pass is one of three plants being developed by Venture Global in Louisiana and is the most advanced.

The US Golden Pass LNG export project on the Gulf Coast, owned by Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil, is requesting authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to begin the work covered in the latest part of its Implementation Plan and including the foundations of the first liquefaction Train by mid- October 2020.

The FERC formally approved the transformation of the Golden Pass import terminal located on the Sabine-Neches Waterway in Texas into an export plant in December 2016.

The Qatar-ExxonMobil project is building three liquefaction Trains with around 16 million tonnes per annum of output.

The first Train is still scheduled to come on stream in 2024, with Train 2 expected to follow six-to-eight months later, and Train 3 six-to-eight months after that.

Golden Pass has continued to progress its site development activities since 2019 and has now submitted the next chapter of the Implementation Plan to expand work at the site.

The project’s engineering, procurement and construction contractor is a joint venture comprising Chiyoda Corp. of Japan and US companies McDermott International and Zachry Group.

The EPC companies have been making sure that local businesses received priority consideration for work and has awarded 34 local subcontracts since actual construction began in May 2020.

The part of the Implementation Plan referred to in the latest FERC filing includes the installation of the foundations in the LNG Train 1 Area. “While Southeast Texas perseveres through the Covid-19 crisis, many companies and residents are getting a boost from opportunity brought to the area by the Golden Pass LNG export project,” the developers have said.

The EPC contractors said they had already committed over $245 million to local businesses so far, and more than 650 local residents were working on the construction site as of the start of August. The companies noted that the work timetable is unchanged.

The Canadian business of Clough Enercore is rebranding to fully integrate into Clough’s North American unit whose project contracts have spanned work for ventures such as LNG Canada, Freeport LNG in Texas and Eagle LNG in Florida.

Clough Enercore was established in 2015 when the Australian engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company acquired Calgary, Alberta based Enercore Projects Ltd.

“It successfully established the EPCM presence across Canada and is now structured to fully support Clough’s broader North American operations,” said Clough.

Clough, which has more than 1,000 in-house engineers, entered the US market in 2014 when it took over Baltimore, Maryland-based LNG project consultants CH.IV.

The growing Clough brand is now working on the EPC contract for the load-out line trestle for the LNG Canada project in Kitimat, British Columbia.

Its Eagle LNG contract at Jacksonville, Florida, was for EPC services for a grassroots micro- LNG plant with 17 million standard cubic feet per day of output and a 1 million gallon LNG tank and truck offloading.

It was also contracted by Freeport LNG for EPC work on a condensate terminal. “As part of our ongoing business integration across our North American entities, we are proud to announce that our Clough Enercore business has changed its brand name to Clough,” said Martin Siddle, Executive Vice President for Clough North America.

“This name change is a result of a rebranding effort designed to bring consistency and structure across the North American businesses while maintaining flexibility, scalability, and resource interchangeability,” explained Siddle.

“We aim to deliver one unified voice and vision across North America.” he added.

TC Energy Corp., the leading North American pipeline company supplying natural gas to the US and Mexico and feed-gas for projects such as LNG Canada, has announced the retirement of President and Chief Executive Russ Girling.

China Gas Holdings, one of the leading non-state controlled companies in the Chinese sector involved in city-gas and LNG, has been included in the Hang Seng Shanghai-Shenzhen-Hong Kong 300 Index for growing corporations as it pledged to replace more coal with gas in Northern China.

French energy major Total and Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines have attended a naming ceremony in the Dutch port of Rotterdam for the “Gas Agility”, the world’s largest LNG bunkering vessel.

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has held a naming ceremony at the Sakaide shipyard for Japan’s first liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel, the “Kaguya”, as Japanese companies respond to the International Maritime Organization’s campaign for cleaner fuel in the shipping industry.

The bunkering ship has capacity of 3,500 cubic metres and is owned by a group of Japanese firms, including the shipping companies NYK Line and Kawasaki Kisen Co.

(K-Line), as well as the largest LNG importer, JERA Co. Inc., and Toyota Tsusho Co., the logistics arm of the Toyota trading house.

“As a powerful response to the stricter IMO emission regulations for ships from 2020, the introduction of ships that use LNG as fuel instead of heavy oil is progressing worldwide,” said the companies.

“This ship is Japan’s first LNG bunkering vessel equipped with facilities for supplying fuel to LNG-propelled vessels at sea,” it added.

The event at the Sakaide yard was attended by most of the leading company executives involved in the project, including, Hitoshi Nagasawa, President of NYK Line and Koichi Akin, President of K-Line.

Also in attendance was Nao Nakamura, Managing Executive Officer of JERA and Toshiro Hidaka, CEO of Machinery, Energy and Plants at Toyota Tsusho.

“The vessel will be handed over after undergoing tests using actual LNG,” said a statement.

“The ‘Kaguya’ will be based at the JERA’s Kawagoe power plant and import terminal northwest of Tokyo and will supply LNG fuel to vessels in the Chubu coastal region,” it added.

The leading Japanese LNG bunkering company is currently Mitsui Osk Lines, which has embarked on a global project with Total of France for jointly-owned vessels to be based in key fuel markets in Europe and elsewhere.

The MOL-Total venture already has one ship in operation in north-west Europe and a second will be delivered from China in 2021 and deployed in the Mediterranean.

This bunker vessel is being built by Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Shanghai, China. It will have capacity of 18,600 cubic metres for a length of about 135 metres and will be fitted with the Mark III membrane containment system provided by French company GTT.

The first Total-MOL LNG bunkering vessel was launched in Shanghai in November 2019 and was delivered to operate from Rotterdam in the Netherlands and other Northern European ports.

It will supply LNG to commercial vessels and the fuel unit of Total will be the provider of the bunkering volumes for the French container line CMA CGM based in Marseilles. This is under a previously signed longterm contract for newbuilds being constructed in China.

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