Seatrium-Karpowership partnership giving LNG vessel trio new lease on life as FSRUs

August 14, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Singapore’s Seatrium is forging a new partnership bond with Türkiye’s floating power plant company Karpowership, which will enable the conversion, life extension, and repairs of three liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers (LNGCs) into floating storage regasification units (FSRUs).

The duo has signed a letter of intent (LoI) to deepen their strategic partnership, which will enable Seatrium to carry out the integration of four new-generation floating power plants known as Powerships, with an option for two additional units.

Once Karpowership delivers the hulls and key equipment for the four Powerships to the Asian player in Singapore, where integration works will begin in the first quarter of 2027, the firm’s scope of work will entail mechanical and electrical equipment integration, mechanical completion, and pre-commissioning.

This agreement also encompasses the conversion, life extension, and repairs of three LNG carriers into FSRUs, which involves the installation of regasification modules, spread-mooring systems, and the integration of critical supporting systems, such as cargo handling, offloading, utility, electrical, and automation systems.

Alvin Gan, Executive Vice President of Repairs and Upgrades at Seatrium, highlighted: “This LOI marks a pivotal step in our journey to build a global franchise in floating power infrastructure. Our successful collaboration with Karpowership goes beyond FSRU conversions – it’s about enabling energy access through innovative maritime platforms.

“With four FSRUs delivered, a fifth due later this month, and two more underway, we are proud to be a long-term trusted partner in delivering greener energy and sustainable solutions; through a variety of innovative solutions in new generation powerships, FLNGs, floating battery, floating data centres and water de-salination vessels. These projects demonstrate our engineering excellence and our commitment to supporting the energy transition.”

The LoI is interpreted to reinforce both companies’ shared commitment to advancing sustainable, mobile, and scalable maritime energy solutions, reflecting Seatrium’s growing role in the global floating power infrastructure space, supporting energy access in underserved regions, and enabling flexible deployment of power assets.

Gokhan Kocak, Chief Technical Operations Officer at Karpowership, emphasized: “We are proud to deepen our long-term partnership with Seatrium as we continue to grow our Powership and FSRU fleet to meet evolving global energy needs. Seatrium’s consistent performance, engineering excellence, and technical strength make it a trusted partner in our ongoing mission to provide reliable and sustainable energy solutions worldwide.

“As part of this effort, we are developing our 3rd generation Powerships with a modular system that can be adapted based on project needs. The new design will allow for the integration of advanced technologies such as CCUS (carbon capture, utilisation and storage) systems or turbines when required. By combining our expertise in design, engineering, and construction with cutting-edge innovation, we aim to reduce our environmental impact while delivering flexible and reliable energy solutions.”

This LoI follows the contract Seatrium secured last month with Kinetics, Karpowership’s energy transition initiative, for the conversion of an LNG carrier into an FSRU.