BP Shipping, the maritime arm of UK-based oil major BP, has added six new LNG vessels to its fleet.
On April 23, the company said that British Partner, British Achiever, British Contributor, British Listener, British Mentor and British Sponsor all joined its fleet. Ordered in 2014, the 173,400 cbm LNG tankers were built for BP at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME).
“It’s been a busy few years in BP Shipping and after approximately 4.6 – 5 million hours worked on our USD 1.3 billion ship build project, we are the proud operators of six new state-of-the-art LNG vessels,” the company added.
Each of the new vessels is fitted with two, next-generation M-type, electronically-controlled, gas-injection (ME-GI) propulsion systems and a proprietary full reliquefaction system (FRS) designed by DSME.
? 4.6-5 million hours worked ?️ $1.3 billion invested ⬇️ 20% less CO2 emissions when compared to industry benchmarks ? Introducing 6 new state-of-the-art LNG vessels – the 1st BP Shipping LNG carriers accredited under our Advancing Low Carbon programme https://t.co/94BYCNqptH pic.twitter.com/kgPClA7qOB
— BP (@BP_plc) April 25, 2019
In October 2017, BP joined forces with KMarin and ICBC Leasing on the fleet expansion plan. The two firms invested over USD 1 billion in the six tankers.
At the time, the company said that the units would be employed on a 20-year liquefaction contract with the Freeport LNG facility in Texas, as well as other international LNG projects in BP’s global portfolio.
The vessels can carry a cargo of LNG equivalent in volume to 69 Olympic sized swimming pools and they deliver the low carbon energy to customers with 20% less CO2 emissions when compared to industry benchmarks, according to BP Shipping.
The company explained that fuel consumption is a major contributor to running costs and, with the latest fleet additions, it expects to save around USD 2 million per ship per year.