The World’s First MAN B&W ME-GI in Service
Retrofit milestone: successful ME-GI gas injection project for Nakilat’s ‘Rasheeda’
Nakilat, in association with Qatari LNG producers Qatargas and RasGas Company Limited and engine manufacturer MAN Diesel & Turbo, recently celebrated the success of the ME-GI project.
The project:
- The Qatari-owned Q-Max vessel is the world’s first low-speed marine diesel engine to be converted to use LNG as a fuel.
- It Involved retrofitting Rasheeda, with a gas-burning M-Type Electronically Controlled – Gas Injection (ME-GI) System, which has now been successfully commissioned.
- The retrofit modification meets the current known and future stated global emissions regulations.
Nakilat’s Rasheeda built in 2010 is a 266,000 m3 LNG carrier with two MAN B&W S70ME-C HFO-burning engines, which have been converted to the dual-fuel ME-GI concept. The shipyard operator Nakilat-Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM) carried out the ship’s conversion at its Erhama bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard facilities in the major Qatari port of Ras Laffan Industrial City.
The project collaborators, including MAN PrimeServ, installed the ME-GI system on the vessel at the Erhama bin Jaber Al Jalahma shipyard in Qatar in June 2015. The partner for the ME-GI fuel supply system is TGE.
Christian Ludwig, Head of Retrofit and Upgrades, MAN PrimeServ, said: “This is a fantastic milestone in our company’s history. It is a lighthouse project, and there has been a remarkable partnership and cooperation through this historic conversion. Our ME-GI order book now stands at 140 orders – for different vessel sizes and applications, which we see as a compelling case for our technology to be designated the industry standard.”
Nakilat Managing Director Eng. Abdullah Al-Sulaiti, said, “The success of the ME-GI project is the culmination of years of cooperation with Qatargas, RasGas and MAN Diesel & Turbo as turnkey project manager. In late 2013, Nakilat worked with our charterers to implement a pilot conversion on Q-Max Rasheeda, the first retrofit ME-GI project ever to be implemented in the marine industry. This is a milestone moment for all involved parties.”
MAN Diesel & Turbo reports that the vessel’s ME-GI units have displayed a seamless change between fuel-oil and gas operation – a key characteristic of the ME-GI technology.
The Qatar fleet comprises 14 Q-Max and 31 Q-Flex LNG carriers, all using dual MAN Diesel Turbo’s S70-ME low-speed diesel engines for propulsion.
Source: MAN
Excellent work Nakhilat – Keppel. Congratulation for taking initiative and successfully completing this landmark project . The LNG fuelled engine makers has been always defensive about conversion, expressing the conversion will not be economical and it is better to re-engine the vessel. Since most of the mobile components are same, Marine engineers were surprised why it costs so much. The reason is obvious- the engine builder need to sell their engine as whole, and not 10% of the top part. 2020 is only 4 years away and ship owners should be queuing in for conversion. 140 in order book is only tip of the order book.
If the LNG engine builders don’t wake up to the situation and quickly jump in to conversion business as well , they could be missing the bus.
Well , it is a certainly a double whammy for Qatar as the demand for their national product LNG will shoot up.
Hi Mr. Ali. Do you know how much conversion costs compared to a re-engine? Just roughly.
Dear Mr. Ali and Mr. AB,
Thank you for your comments.
Reply to AB – What we have heard about is – the conversion costs are higher than what it takes to re-engine the vessel.
Any thoughts or any more insights would be appreciated.