Wärtsilä has been contracted to supply its volatile organic compounds (VOC) recovery technology, LNG fuel gas handling systems and the auxiliary engines for two new shuttle tankers being built for Singapore-based AET Tankers at South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) yard. The pair are part of an order for four dual-fuel, 113,000 dwt Aframax tankers placed by AET at SHI in April 2017.
The two shuttle tankers will operate on LNG as the primary fuel but the VOCs – the gas evaporating from the oil cargo tanks – will also be utilised as fuel by mixing it with the LNG. Wärtsilä stated that by recovering the VOCs and combining them with LNG from dedicated bunker tanks, each ship can save up to 3,000 tonnes of fuel per annum. The LNG/VOCs mix can be utilised as fuel in both the pair of two-stroke main engines and the pair of four-stroke auxiliary engines on each tanker.
Wärtsilä’s scope of supply for each of the shuttle tankers includes the VOC recovery plant, the liquefied VOC fuel tank, the fuel mixing unit, the LNG fuel tanks and fuel gas supply system, the gas valve unit and two Wärtsilä 34DF dual-fuel, four-stroke auxiliary engines. Valued at US$37.15M in total, the equipment is scheduled for delivery to SHI in Q3 this year.
Statoil has secured the Aframax shuttle tankers on long-term charter and will operate the pair loading cargoes from oilfields in the North Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the southern Barents Sea. The ships, which will be delivered in 2019 and 2020, will be provided with a dynamic positioning II capability and will be the world’s first dual-fuel DP shuttle tankers. OSM Maritime will be responsible for the technical management of the two ships.
All four AET twin-skeg tankers being built at SHI will be powered by a pair of two-stroke, six-cylinder, dual-fuel X62DF engines designed by WinGD. Each vessel will be equipped with a pair of large IMO Type C, deck-mounted, LNG bunker tanks with sufficient capacity to enable a full month’s operations between fuelling operations.
SHI will deliver the non-shuttle tanker pair before the vessels for Statoil. The first dual-fuel Aframax for AET is due for completion in Q3 2018.
AET is a subsidiary of MISC, the Malaysian energy shipping group and operator of a large fleet of LNG carriers. MISC anticipates that half of its Aframax fleet as well as other oil tankers, including very large crude carriers, will adopt the LNG dual-fuel propulsion option in the years ahead as its fleet replacement programme progresses.
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Source: LNG World Shipping
