LNG Bunker Ship is First of Several: Engie

The world’s first purpose-built LNG bunkering vessel (LBV) has been delivered by South Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction at the Yeongdo shipyard in Busan to its four co-owners, according to a statement February 15 by one of them, France’s Engie.

Engie Zeebrugge will run on LNG for her maiden voyage after a few days of loading LNG delivered by trucks at the shipyard. The 5,000 m³ LNG capacity vessel will supply LNG as a marine fuel to ships operating in northern Europe, including two giant UECC-owned car-carriers already operating.

Engie, Belgian gas grid Fluxys, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and shipowner NYK are the vessel’s four co-owners. 

Zeebrugge in Belgium will serve as its home port and it will use the Fluxys LNG terminal’s recently commissioned second jetty; the LBV will be able to run on either LNG or diesel. NYK will manage the Belgian-flagged vessel.

In September 2016, Engie, Mitsubishi and NYK launched a new brand name ‘Gas4Sea’ to market ship-to-ship LNG bunkering services worldwide, in order to capture opportunities presented by recent IMO decisions to crack down on pollutants in ships’ fuels.

LNG is typically particulate-free and gives off no oxides of sulphur or nitrogen when combusted, unlike the marine fuel oil it is displacing.

Skangas's future LNG bunker vessel en route between shipyards in December 2016 prior to its expected delivery (Photo credit: Royal Bodewes)

Vessel the first in a series

Norwegian marine LNG supplier Skangas meanwhile expects to take delivery this year of Coralius, the first state-of-the-art LNG bunker and feeder vessel to be built in Europe, which will have capacity to hold 5,800 m³ of NG. It has been built by Dutch shipbuilder Royal Bodewes: the hull was completed in November 2016 at its yard in Szczecin, Poland after which it was due to be outfitted at its German yard at Papenburg.

Coralius will be delivered at the Royal Bodewes International Shipyard in summer 2017, Skangas CEO Tor Morten Osmundsen told NGW February 15. The LBV will be chartered to Skangas by Sirius Veder Gas, a joint shipowning venture of Dutch firm Anthony Veder and Sweden's Sirius Rederi.

Spain's Cepsa in 2018 expects to take delivery of a multi-fuel bunkering ship, to be based at Barcelona, that will be able to supply LNG.

Mark Smedley