X-DF-propelled newbuildings further NYK's ESG plans

摘要

The NYK Group has furthered its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policy with the recent delivery of a pair of next-generation LNG carriers from Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI). The 117,564 gt Diamond Gas Crystal left the South Korean shipyard in May, followed by identical sister ship Diamond Gas Victoria in July. They are part of NYK's long-term time-charter contract with Diamond Gas International Pte. Ltd. (DGI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore's Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), for DGI to charter three new LNG carriers from NYK. NYK is responsible for ship management of the two vessels and for about 18 years the ships will transport LNG from the LNG Canada project in British Columbia, in which MC has a stake, as well as from other locations around the world. Now in its third year of construction, LNG Canada will export Canadian natural gas to Asian markets and the US$30Bn project represents one of the country's largest energy investments. Both with 174,000 m3 capacities, Diamond Gas Crystal and Diamond Gas Victoria have a length of 297 m, beam of 46 m and draft of 9.3 m. They are fitted with Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD) dual-fuel slow-speed diesel engines that are designed for superior fuel-consumption efficiency and can operate on marine gas oil or boil-off gas (BOG) stored in the cargo tank. Introduced by WinGD in 2013, the low-pressure X-DF technology is based on the lean-burn Otto-cycle combustion principle, in which fuel and air are premixed and burned at a relatively high air-to-fuel ratio. The technology is already widely used on medium-speed engines and has since been successfully incorporated on small- and large-size LNG carriers.