The Northern Lights joint venture has ordered four 7,500-m3 vessels to transport liquefied carbon dioxide (LCO2) to its carbon sequestration facility in the North Sea
K Line has signed bare boat charter and time charter contracts with the Northern Lights joint venture, made up of partners Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.
The Japanese shipowner’s London-based subsidiary K-Line LNG Shipping UK Ltd will manage the vessel along with two others ordered by the Northern Lights JV.
The three vessels will join a fourth vessel announced in December 2023, which will be managed by Bernhard Schulte.
The four Northern Lights LCO2 carriers are sister vessels with the same vessel design and have a cargo capacity of 7,500 m3. Custom-built for transporting liquefied CO2, these ships will move LCO2 from Northern Lights’ customers across northwest Europe to an LCO2 receiving terminal at Øygarden, Norway, before permanent sequestration offshore.
All four vessels are being built at China’s Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore with delivery planned for 2024, for the initial two vessels in the fleet.
One of the distinctive features of each of the 130-m carriers will be a single 28 m x 4 m Rotor Sail supplied by Norsepower. The Finnish company estimates the Rotor Sails will reduce the fuel and CO2 emissions from each vessel by approximately 5%.
K-Line said its first two chartered vessels are now 75% complete and on track for delivery "later this year".
“We are delighted to successfully undertake ship management for the third Northern Lights vessel. We have already set up a dedicated team for CO2 ship management in K-Line LNG Shipping (UK) Ltd in London for the first and second vessels and believe the preparation for prior vessels will be further accumulated with the additional vessel in the fleet. Having the experience of building up the team and operational procedure, we are determined to contribute to the world’s first CCS project by Northern Lights,” said K-Line chief executive and president Yukikazu Myochin.
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