Eversafe airbags facilitate safe launch of LPGC at Sinopacific yard
Eversafe airbags facilitate safe launch of LPGC at Sinopacific yard
The 28 September 2011 launch of the 5,000m3 JS Caesar at the Sinopacific shipyard in Jiangsu province was facilitated by the use of 26 air bags supplied by the Chinese marine engineering company Eversafe. The 92.5m-long JS Caesar is the first in a series of six fully pressurised sisterships for Jaccar Holdings and the first gas carrier to be built by Sinopacific.
The ship was constructed on a concrete ramp with two slopes, one of 1.3/100 and the second of 2.5/100. The elevation of the ramp end is 3.64m. Launch calculations showed that, due to the vessel’s narrow shape and the lack of water depth, the gas carrier would drop by 2m when its centre of gravity passed the end of the slipway. This was deemed to be unacceptable as the ship was being launched with wide deck openings to allow the cargo tanks to be fitted at a later stage. The launch of the vessel in this state would have subjected the hull structure to dangerously high loads.
To overcome the problem the launch date was postponed for a month, until a day when water levels would be particularly high, and the Eversafe airbags were used to move the ship forward by 30m in advance of the launch ceremony.
Eversafe engineers pointed out later that, although their equipment enabled a successful outcome on this occasion, the technology is no substitute for a well-designed slipway of reasonable elevation and sufficient length. All the vessels in the Jaccar series are being launched utilising Eversafe airbags.
Hyundai builds its VLGC orderbook
Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has added to its orderbook of 82,000m3 and 84,000m3 VLGCs in recent months with six newbuild contracts. Five of the vessels are scheduled for 2013 delivery while the sixth will be handed over in 2014.
SK Shipping, Pertamina and Solvang have each recently contracted one VLGC at the yard while Petredec has three on order. The vessel for Pertamina, which is costing a reported US$79.5m and is scheduled for delivery in June 2014, is the Indonesian state-owned oil and gas company’s first VLGC newbuilding. The vessel will assist Pertamina in meeting Indonesia’s growing LPG import requirements.
The SK Shipping and Solvang orders are conversions of previously held options. The SK Shipping newbuild brings to three the total number of VLGCs the Korean shipowner now has under construction at HHI. The latest vessel will help affiliate SK Gas in fulfilling a contract it recently secured to transport 400,000 tonnes of LPG per annum from the Middle East to Korea for a period of 25 years. The ship will also enable SK Gas to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities offered by rising US LPG export shipments.
The recent Solvang contract brings to two the number of VLGCs the company has on order at HHI. The vessels are scheduled for delivery in the third and fourth quarters of 2013. Solvang will hold a 20 per cent ownership stake in the latest newbuilding and will be the vessel’s managing owner. The ship will commence a five-year charter on delivery.
Singapore-based Petredec’s trading team is one of the largest lifters of LPG in the Middle East Gulf, with up to 15 loadings per month. The three VLGC newbuildings at HHI will provide the company with tonnage to both replace ageing vessels and cater for the growing volumes of LPG being traded.
Avance Gas acquires four VLGCs
Avance Gas Holding Ltd, the Sungas Holdings/Stolt-Nielsen Gas joint venture, has acquired the 83,800m3 Maran Gas Knossos and Maran Gas Vergina from Maran Gas Maritime and the 82,000m3 Progress and Prospect from Transpetrol.
The Maran Gas vessels, which fetched US$73m each, were built by Daewoo in 2008 and 2009 while the Transpetrol ships were constructed by Hyundai in 2009. No sale price was reported for the Transpetrol pair although Transpetrol has acquired an equal 33 per cent stake in the Avance Gas operation. The four acquisitions will join Avance Gas by the end of August 2012, boosting the company’s fleet size to nine VLGCs.
“The new ships move Avance closer to its targeted fleet size,” states Niels Stolt-Nielsen, Stolt-Nielsen Ltd chief executive officer. “That fleet size will provide increased access to spot and contract business with the world’s major shippers of LPG.”
The Avance Gas fleet trades mainly in the spot market, loading in the Middle East for destinations primarily in Asia. Maran Gas is now concentrating its efforts on the LNG sector. The company has 11 LNGCs on order and an interest in five in-service LNGCs.
Ultragas goes to STX for semi-ref newbuilds
The Ultragas Group has ordered two firm and four option 22,000m3 semi-ref LPG carriers at STX Offshore & Shipbuilding as part of a fleet renewal and expansion programme.
In June 2012 the Ultragas Group consolidated its ‘handygas’ semi-ref LPG carrier activities at the Ultragas (Europe) offices in Copenhagen. Ultragas (Europe) will handle the commercial operation of four existing Ultragas ships in the 15,000-22,000m3 size range as well as the commercial management of the four third party vessels in this Handygas fleet.
The eight-ship Ultragas (Europe) Handygas fleet will be replenished and augmented by the STX newbuildings and the two firm ships will be delivered in late 2013 and mid-2014. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (UK) Ltd is responsible for the technical management of all the Ultragas (Europe) semi-ref ships.
Ultragas has also recently bought the 36,000m3, 1996-built, fully refrigerated Elversele from Exmar for a reported US$36.9m. The ship has been fixed by Ultragas to Enap of Chile for two years with options for an additional two years.
Sovcomflot LPGC pair fixed on Sibur charter
Russian oil and chemical company Sibur has secured a pair of Sovcomflot 20,600m3, ice class 1B LPG carriers on 15-year time charters. The vessels are currently under construction at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Korea and are due for completion in fourth quarter 2013.
The semi-pressurised/fully refrigerated (semi-ref) ships, to be classed jointly by Lloyd’s Register and the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping, have been designed with Sibur’s transportation needs in mind. They will be provided with ballast water treatment systems and the ice class rating will enable the loading of export cargoes at the new Sibur LPG terminal being built at Ust-Luga, the Russian Baltic Sea port, throughout the winter months. The newbuildings are costing Sovcomflot a reported US$50m each.
Hyundai Mipo’s extensive involvement in midsize gas carrier (MGC) construction is described below.
Jaegers returns to Foxhall for 2,700m3 pair
The Jaegers Group of Germany has returned to the Dutch Foxhall yard in Groningen for two 2,700m3 inland waterway/ocean-going LPG carriers. Bayamo and Brisote are scheduled for delivery at end-first quarter and end-third quarter 2013. The newbuildings will cost in the region of US$17-19m each.
The Foxhall yard also built the 2,700m3 LPG carriers Typhoon and Twister for the Jaegers Group in 2010. Jaegers became involved with gas and ocean-going shipping for the first time in 2003 with the acquisition of the gas tanker fleets of Chemgas of Rotterdam and its French affiliate CFT-Gaz.
Tokyo Gas, Inpex merge LPG operations
Tokyo Gas and Inpex have unified their LPG operations through the merger of their respective Tokyo Gas Energy and Teiseki Propane subsidiaries. The new company, TG Energy, has integrated the supply of feed gas from the upstream LPG projects owned by Inpex with the LPG terminals owned by Tokyo Gas and the LPG retail and wholesale businesses owned by the two parent companies.
First LPGC drydocking completed at N-KOM
Earlier this year Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine’s (N-KOM’s) new ship service centre at Ras Laffan in Qatar completed its first LPG carrier repair. The vessel in question was the 1999-built, 78,500m3, fully refrigerated Yuhsho, one of the ships in the Avance Gas very large gas carrier (VLGC) fleet.
Yuhsho, which is owned by Yuyo Steamships and managed by Wilhelmsen Shipmanagement, was drydocked and underwent general repairs, including sandblasting and painting, overhauling of the main engine valves, turbocharger and cylinders, propeller polishing, fuel injector overhauling and the installation of new ballast tank anodes.
N-KOM also handled its first very large crude carrier docking during January 2012, the same month as Yuhsho’s visit, but the yard has been busiest to date in the servicing of LNG carriers. LPG carrier repairs are likely to figure more prominently going forward as LPG exports from Ras Laffan build towards plateau levels. The port is expected to load 11 million tonnes (mt) of LPG in 2012, up from 10.5mt in 2010. Qatar overtook Saudi Arabia in 2010 to become the world’s No 1 LPG exporter.
Nakilat takes on full management of four VLGCs
Nakilat Qatar Shipping Ltd (NSQL), a subsidiary of the Qatari shipowner Nakilat, has taken over the technical management and operation of its four very large gas carriers (VLGCs) as part of a planned transfer of responsibility from Shell Trading and Shipping Co Ltd (Stasco). The 82,000m3 vessels – Al Wukir, Bu Sidra, Lubara and Umm Laqhab – were built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) in 2008 and 2009 and are jointly owned by Nakilat and Milaha.
Nakilat’s long-term goal is to transfer the management and operations of all its wholly owned vessels, including its 25 LNG carriers now managed by Stasco, to its NSQL subsidiary. Nakilat had expanded its workforce in preparation for taking on responsibility for the VLGCs and recruiting personnel with capabilities and experience suited to supporting NSQL’s new shipmanagement role.
Hyundai Mipo consolidates MGC position
In addition to the four option four 38,000m3 LPG carriers that Exmar has ordered recently at the yard, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard also holds contracts with KSS Line and Geogas for the construction of one 35,000m3 vessel each. The ships are priced at approximately US$50m each.
Since handing over the 35,000m3 Anafi to Eletson in February 2009, Hyundai Mipo has built seven midsize gas carriers (MGCs) and made such fully refrigerated ships its gas carrier speciality. More details of the Exmar orders are given on page 26.
MGCs are built to carry ammonia as well as LPG, and ammonia represents an important cargo for ships this size. Mitsui & Co will charter the KSS Line ship for five years from its delivery in May 2013 and the contract enables an extension of the hire period by a further five years if desired.
The vessel for Geogas is due for completion in October 2013 and the Switzerland-based gas trader also holds an option on two further MGCs at Hyundai Mipo. If taken up, the additional pair would be delivered in late 2013 and early 2014. LPG
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