Mitsubishi Heavy Industries informed it has received an order for two next-generation LNG carriers from Mitsui.
The carriers on order feature a design that achieves significant improvements in both LNG carrying capacity and fuel performance through the adoption of a more efficient hull structure and an innovative hybrid propulsion system. The vessels are scheduled for completion and delivery in 2018 and 2019, respectively. They will be put into service for the Cameron LNG Project under way in the United States, an initiative in which Mitsui is participating. The event marks the first order placed to MHI for LNG carriers to transport shale gas.
The order for the two LNG carriers was received through MI LNG Company, a joint venture between MHI and Imabari Shipbuilding. The vessels will be constructed at MHI’s Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works. The carriers will have four apple-shaped tanks, an improved version of high-reliability Moss-type2 tanks designed with a bulging upper half. Total holding capacity of the tanks will be 177,000 cubic meters (m3). LNG carrying efficiency has been increased as the vessel width has been kept to a size enabling its passage through the newly expanding Panama Canal expected to go into service early in 2016.
The carriers will have four apple-shaped tanks, an improved version of high-reliability Moss-type2 tanks designed with a bulging upper half. Total holding capacity of the tanks will be 177,000 cubic meters. LNG carrying efficiency has been increased as the vessel width has been kept to a size enabling its passage through the newly expanding Panama Canal expected to go into service early in 2016.
The LNG carriers on order feature a hybrid propulsion system dubbed “STaGE”, which combines a steam turbine and engines that can be fired by gas. STaGE’s components consist of the “Ultra Steam Turbine plant”, a dual-fuel diesel engine capable of operating on both gas and oil, and an electric propulsion motor.
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Image: MHI