LNG small tanker ship: news in Japan and South Korea

In Japan, the Sakaide Works shipyard of Kawasaki Heavy Industries launched the first LNG bunker vessel of the country which was ordered in 2018 by Central LNG Shipping Japan Corporation (CLS), the joint venture formed by the shipping companies Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line), the JERA energy supply group (owned by two major electrical utilities in Japan such as Tokyo Electric Power and Chubu Electric Power) and the trading company Toyota Tsusho Corporation.

The LNG bunkering vessel, with a capacity of 3,500 cubic meters of liquefied natural gas, should be definitively delivered to the CLS client at the end of September 2020; its port base will be established near the Kawagoe thermoelectric power station of JERA group (which will be the LNG supplier).

At the same time its first maritime LNG bunkering activities, from ship to LNG-powered ships, will be launched (operated by the Central LNG Marine Fuel Corporation).

During the event, Central LNG Shipping and the Central LNG Marine Fuel Corporation underlined their commitment to establish an LNG fuel supply network in the Chubu region.

In South Korea on May 6, it was held the steel cutting ceremony for the construction of an LNG bunker for coastal supplies, the first to be built exclusively with local South Korean technology following a guided development project by the Korea Research Institute of Ships & Ocean Engineering (KRISO) and funded by the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The goal is to establish a new coastal LNG bunkering system in South Korea to serve ships powered by LNG.

The new bunker ship, also equipped with LNG propulsion, should be delivered in 2021 and start commercial LNG bunkering operations in 2023, after about a year of sea trials.

In addition to KRISO, the project sees the participation of the Korean steel group POSCO, the shipbuilder EK Heavy Industries, the pressure tank manufacturer Mytec and the Valmax company which develops LNG refuelling stations in South Korea.