• 23 Oct 2018

On October 17th , 2018, the LNG bunker supply vessel “Kairos” has started its voyage from the shipyard in South Korea to the ship’s primary area of operation in Northwest Europe.

The ship, with an LNG capacity of 7,500 m³, will be ready for operations before the end of 2018.

Among the largest LNG bunker supply vessel, Kairos has a ballast-free design and CNG tank to store vapour return gas from customer vessels.

The ship is owned by Babcock Schulte Energy (BSE), a fifty-fifty joint venture between Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) and Babcock International, to support their first LNG bunker-supply ship project and to develop other green shipping ventures together.

The construction of the vessel started in 2016 when the joint venture BSE signed a time-charter agreement with the Hamburg based company Nauticor GmbH & Co. (a leading supplier of liquefied natural gas which combines a broad range of competencies in cryogenic technology, logistics, and bunkering) and the Lithuanian Klaipėdos Nafta, to develop LNG supply solutions for maritime customers in Northwest Europe, especially the North and Baltic Sea.

Mahinde Abeynaike, CEO of Nauticor, which holds 90 percent of the joint venture that charters the vessel, emphasized the crucial role of the LNG bunker vessel for the LNG supply: “The arrival of the “Kairos” in the Baltic Sea will set a milestone for LNG as a ship fuel; from then on, supply of LNG as a marine fuel in the Baltic Sea is secured on a large-scale basis. This is a great step for sustainable and responsible shipping with a large impact on air and water quality.”

Mindaugas Jusius, CEO of Klaipėdos Nafta, which holds the remaining 10% of the joint venture, pointed out : “the new ship will ensure an efficient LNG reloading station service in the Port of Klaipėda (Lithuania) and offer a full LNG logistics chain in the Baltic Sea Region to its customers”.

Source: Nauticor