Avance to Drydock Newbuild

Norwegian owner and operator of Very Large Gas Carriers (VLGC) Avance Gas will dry dock the recently delivered VLGC Monsoon after technical irregularities occurred during the vessel’s voyage from Balboa (Panama) to China. 

The VLGC Monsoon, the second hull delivered from Jiangnan Shipyard in January 2015, will be dry docked at Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard close to Ningbo around April 1.

Third party experts will perform investigations of the cause of the defects once the ship is docked.

Avance says that the scope of the rectification work and the off-hire period will be assessed as soon as the report from the experts is received, expected around mid April.

The ship is under warranties from the Jiangnan Shipyard and no major costs is expected in relation to the dry-docking, apart from possible lost revenue.

Based on the report from the experts, it will also be assessed what stress test will be applied to the sister ships to ensure that no similar technical defects occur.

VLGC Monsoon was on a 60-90 days time charter with an undisclosed charterer, started in early February.

The Monsoon was delivered on January 13, together with its sister ship VLGCs Mistral.