China: first APLNG dedicated tanker named at Hudong-Zhonghua

China COSCO Shipping, on Tuesday, said the first LNG carrier dedicated to transport the chilled fuel from the Australia Pacific LNG plant, has been named at the Chinese Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard. 

The 174,000-cbm carrier is the first in a series of six vessels have been ordered by a joint venture between China Energy Shipping Investment and Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), in 2013 at a price of US$1.5 billion.

China Energy Shipping Investment is a joint venture in which China COSCO Shipping with a 51 percent ownership and Sinopec owning the remaining 49 percent.

The vessel will be chartered to Sinopec that has booked 7.6 million tons of LNG per year from the Australia Pacific LNG plant on Curtis Island near Gladstone.

Sinopec owns a 25 percent stake in the APLNG project that has recently started producing liquefied natural gas from its Train 2, while ConocoPhillips and Origin Energy hold a 37.5 percent stake each. At full capacity, the A$25 billion (US$17 billion) Australia Pacific LNG project will be producing 9 mtpa of the chilled fuel.

The remaining vessels are scheduled for delivery from 2016 through 2017, Sinopec said in an earlier statement.

LNG World News Staff