South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has signed contracts to construct two 360,000-m3 LNG barges for independent Russian gas producer Novatek that would serve as LNG storage and transhipment hubs
Being built at a cost of KRW900Bn (US$748M), the LNG barges will be delivered in H2 2022. The contract contains options to build two additional LNG barges.
Each LNG barge will serve as floating LNG storage terminal, receiving and storing cargoes transported by icebreaking Arc7 class LNG carriers from Russian LNG projects in the Arctic. Those cargoes will be offloaded to LNG carriers for transhipment to Europe or Asia.
One of those projects is Novatek’s Yamal LNG, located on the Yamal Peninsula, with a nameplate capacity of 17.4 mta of LNG. About 70 km across Ob Bay from Yamal LNG, Novatek is developing the US$21.3Bn Arctic LNG 2 project, with a capacity of 19.8 mta, with first commercial production in 2023. A smaller project, Ob LNG, is being developed with a capacity of about 4.8 mta in the central Yamal Peninsula. It is also expected to begin commercial operations in 2023.
Moored in the Murmansk and Kamchatka regions, the LNG barges serving as transhipment hubs are expected to lower the transportation cost and improve the speed of cargoes shipped to Europe and Asia via the Northern Sea Route. Murmansk is located in north-western Russia on the Barents Sea, while Kamchatka is a peninsula located in the Russian Far East, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Sea of Okhotsk.
With these contracts, DSME is building a full range of LNG-related vessels, from traditional LNG carriers to LNG floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) to LNG floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels.
Novatek’s order follows on the heels of an announcement of a 100-plus LNG carrier newbuilding programme by Qatar with South Korea’s three major shipbuilders, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries and DSME. Additional details of Qatar’s massive newbuilding programme, valued at US$19Bn, have not yet been revealed.
“This order has proved Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering’s overwhelming technological capabilities once again to the market,” said the company in a statement, adding, “In the wake of Covid-19, some of the large-scale projects are being delayed, so this order secures a stable sense of work.”
DSME has secured orders worth US$1.33Bn in 2020, including two LNG barges, one LNG-FSRU, two shuttle tankers, and one very large crude carrier.
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