In a major development, Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and Turkey’s Karpowership International have agreed to collaborate in Karmol, a joint venture that will market LNG-fuelled floating power plants to countries and territories that need fast-track power-to-grid solutions, writes John Snyder in an article published in LNG World Shipping.
Karpowership – the ultimate floating power station brand
Karpowership International owns a fleet of 20 Powerships – its brand name for floating power stations – that are used to supply power to the grid in Indonesia, Sierra Leone, Lebanon, Ghana, Mozambique and Gambia. Its first was Liberia-flagged Powership, a dry cargo ship built by Mitsui in 1983 and converted in 2010 to a floating power plant. Powership was used to supply power to the grid in southeastern Iraq.
Details of the Deal
MOL said regasified LNG will be supplied through a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to the Powership to provide reliable electricity to shore grids and facilities where base-load electricity or replacements of fuel mode are required to meet environmental concerns.
Advantages of Collaboration
The partners said the Karmol collaboration offers several operational and environmental advantages.
- One is a competitive initial capex construction cost and fast-track, turnkey solution to provide LNG to create immediate savings for customers and to meet the power demand.
- A second advantage is reducing greenhouse gases by replacing higher-emission fuels with LNG.
The collaboration leverages both companies’ experience. MOL’s knowledge of LNG carriers and FSRUs and Karpowership’s work in the floating power generation business.
MOL and Karpowership have started to convert an existing LNG carrier into an FSRU to provide regasified LNG to a Powership.
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Source: LNGworldshipping
