Decarbonisation underpins appetite for new two-stroke LNG carriers

摘要

As part of their ongoing expansion programmes, two prominent shipowners have recently taken delivery of three next-generation, highly efficient LNG carriers, with two vessels going on long-term charters with Shell and the third employed on the 'red hot' spot market at the start of the year. The pair of 174,000 m~3 cargo capacity carriers, LNGShips Athena and LNGShips Empress, are the newest additions to the 16-strong modern fleet owned by LNGShips and managed by Greek-based TMS Cardiff Gas. Handed over to the charterers in March and April, respectively, they are part of an ambitious newbuild programme of 11 vessels being carried out through 2020 and 2021. The two vessels are both under long-term contracts with Shell. Both LNG carriers were built by shipyards in South Korea, LNGShips Athena at Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and LNGShips Empress at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI). The twin-skeg LNG carriers are each equipped with two-stroke, dual-fuel, low-pressure, Otto-cycle WinGD X-DF main engines and feature a GTT Mark Ⅲ Flex cargo containment system with very low boil-off rate - 0.10 to 0.085% volume per day, reports GTT. The ships are near identical 116,542 gt vessels, with a length of 300 m and beam of 46 m.