LNG - Market
By Paul Bartlett LNG fleet based on carrying capacity. To date, there are 24 LNG tankers, four LPG tankers and one FSRU managed and operated in-house by NSQL.
LNG sector on a roll as demand ramps up
The Global Sea Spirit
New LNG tanker for Nakilat Qatar’s Nakilat has taken delivery of a newbuild LNG tanker, Global Sea Spirit, which will be commercially and technically managed inhouse by Nakilat Shipping Qatar Limited (NSQL). Built by South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME she is the third of four LNG newbuild tankers to be delivered to Global Shipping, a joint venture between Nakilat (60%) and Greece’s Maran Ventures (40%). The first two LNG tankers (ME-GI type) were delivered in May 2020 and January 2021 respectively and are currently in service. She is chartered to Cheniere Marketing International. With a cargo carrying capacity of 174,000 m3, Global Sea Spirit is the first vessel with X-DF propulsion to join the Nakilat fleet, with the second newbuild (also with X-DF propulsion) expected to be delivered early next year. Like the ME-GI system, vessels running with X-DF engines propulsion are proven to be more fuel efficient, reduce greenhouse emissions and environmentally friendly due to their low carbon emission. Like the rest of Nakilat’s fleet, the newbuild fully complies with all mandatory international and national regulations pertaining to environmental protection. They also have significantly lower boil-off rates, and equipped with onboard reliquefication units, thus providing greater operational flexibility for charterers. The delivery of all four newbuild LNG tankers by 2022 will bring Nakilat’s fleet to 74 vessels, which is just under 12% of the current global
The Methane Princess and Methene Progress laid-up after the completion of the 20 year contract
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Few shipping sectors have undergone so radical a transformation as the LNG market. From the first commercial shipment of the cargo in 1964 from Arzew, Algeria to the new LNG terminal at Canvey Island, UK, aboard the 27,400 m3 Methane Princess, there followed decades in which the global business was confined to a handful of low-profile, long-term, fixed-contract trades, and a small and relatively stable fleet of similarlysized vessels dedicated to specific projects, the sector has undergone a transformation. Prior the Methane Princess, and her sistership, Methane Progress, experimental cargoes were carried to Canvey Island on-board a converted cargo vessel Methane Pioneer (5,090 m3 of LNG from Lake Charles, Louisiana to the UK) and the Esso Puerto Rico, although she was designed in 1958 to carry LPG. Both the Methane Princess and Methane Progress were operated by Shell and had Conch containment systems. This containment design was never ever used again, although the ships spent some 20 years on the Arzew – Canvey Island service There was, at that time, virtually no short-term or spot market. But today, a wide range of new trades has evolved and more are constantly developing. The sector’s composition has changed – from the risk-averse owners whose ships were tied in to 20-year contracts to one in which a significant number of newcomers vie for business – short, medium or long. Ships are ordered on spec and make spectacular returns from time to time in a volatile spot and short-term market.
Fleet diversification As global LNG trades have diversified, so too have the ships themselves. There are still nearly 250 steam turbine vessels and close to 200 dual-fuel diesel electrics. There are about the same number of low-pressure and high-pressure dual-fuel two-stroke engine installations. These generate different levels of methane emissions, a growing concern in shipping’s increasingly visible sustainability drive. GTT membrane containment systems are used on most vessels in operation today and on order. About 120 ships have Moss ‘spherical’ tanks but no ships on order have this containment technology. A diverse fleet ranging from small-scale vessels to the largest 266,000 m3 Q-max ships are deployed in a varied market. They are employed in some of the original dedicated supply contracts agreed by producers including Abu Dhabi, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and later, Qatar. But today they also operate in more diverse trades out of northern Russia, Canada, Africa, South America and, of course, the US. The small number of dedicated contracts has expanded into a complex network of supply deals. In some cases, notably in the US, entire trades have reversed. New terminals built to import the LNG that the US traditionally required have been converted to key export hubs and, in 2020, gas shipments accounted for 23% of US energy exports, measured
