LNG Developments have been significantly shaping the global energy landscape. Recent trends show increased activity in the Mediterranean region, while Alaska continues its long-standing LNG initiatives. As Brunei approaches its 50th anniversary, it targets expanding its footprint in the liquefied natural gas market. Meanwhile, political challenges and fluctuating prices have sidelined projects in El Paso.
Additionally, Quincy is leading the way in developing innovative spherical tank technology, promising more efficient storage solutions. These factors collectively highlight the dynamic and evolving nature of the LNG industry.
The Mediterranean LNG crucible
The busiest and most intense LNG shipping arena since the industry’s inception, the cross-Mediterranean trades show no signs of slowing down.
The proximity of the gas-rich nations of North Africa to the gas-poor countries of southern Europe has ensured a busy Mediterranean trade in LNG over the decades. Due to the short distances involved Medmax LNG carriers, which are considerably smaller than a conventional deepsea vessel, consistently top the LNG shipping industry’s Voyages Completed charts.
In November 1965 the Esso Libya LNG venture was initiated when affiliates of the oil and gas company agreed to supply 2,4 million tonnes per annum (mta) of LNG to customers in Italy and Spain, beginning in late 1968. Italy was to receive two-thirds of the volume and Spain one-third.
Four ships of 41 000 m3 were deemed right for this cross-Mediterranean trade and Esso International developed its own independent cargo tank design for the ships. During 1969 and 1970 Italcantieri’s Genoa Sestri yard in Italy completed three of the ships – Esso Brega, Esso Portovenere and Esso Liguria. The fourth vessel, Laieta, was delivered by the Astano yard at El Ferrol in Spain in 1970.
The hull and containment system of Esso Brega and her three sisters reflected the cautious approach of the Esso designers, shipbuilders and class societies at a time when LNG transportation was just commencing. The result was a quartet of the most robust LNG carriers ever built. The four prismatic cargo tanks constructed by Chicago Bridge & Iron (CB&I) for each vessel had double walls of Type 5083 aluminium alloy and were fitted, one per hold, below the main and trunk decks.
The new LNG export terminal being built at Marsa el Brega in Libya was complemented by the Mediterranean’s first LNG receiving facilities, at Panigaglia near La Spezia in Italy and at Barcelona in Spain. Delays in construction work at Marsa el Brega meant that exports did not begin until late 1971, at which point Libya became the world’s third LNG export nation.
In 1969, in advance of the completion of the Esso ships and the start of the Marsa el Brega plant, the 5 000 m3 Aristotle (ex-Methane Pioneer) delivered two cargoes from the CAMEL plant at Arzew in western Algeria to Panigaglia, where they were used to cool down the storage tanks and pipelines. The Enagas import terminal at Barcelona was also commissioned in 1969 and, similarly, was able to take early LNG cargoes from Arzew, onboard Aristotle and Methane Princess.
In 1972 the CAMEL plant at Arzew added a new Mediterranean import terminal to its list of customers – France’s Fos Tonkin facility near Marseilles. The Algeria-France cross-Mediterranean connection was also enhanced by the commissioning of a second Algerian export terminal, the three-train Skikda plant in the eastern part of the country, in November 1972.
Each country agreed to provide a new 40 000 m3 ship for the Skikda-Fos Tonkin project. Hassi R’Mel was delivered to Compagnie Nationale Algérienne de Navigation (CNAN) in 1971 by Constructions Navales et Industrielles de la Méditerranée (CNIM) at La Seyne in France. France’s contribution, Tellier, was handed over to Messigaz in January 1974 by Chantiers Navals de la Ciotat.
Hassi R’Mel, the first Algerian-owned LNG carrier, had six Gaz Transport № 82 membrane cargo tanks and loaded its first Skikda cargo in 1973. A five-tank ship with the Technigaz Mark I membrane containment system, Tellier joined Hassi R’Mel on the Skikda-to-Fos route in 1974. A look at Tellier’s logbook in 2012, as the vessel was taken out of service for despatch to the recycling yard, revealed that the ship had completed 1 956 loaded passages during a 38-year working life. It is a record that is unlikely to be broken, given the larger vessels employed on the cross-Mediterranean routes today. Tellier first made history in 1992, as the first LNG carrier to rack up 1 000 voyages.
Once the Skikda plant was in full operation, its output was sufficient to enable the supply of several customers. In addition to the Fos shipments cargoes were also directed to Barcelona and buyers in the US. Algeria later consolidated its position as the world’s largest exporter of LNG with the commissioning of two large export facilities at Arzew, the GL1Z plant in 1978 and the GL2Z in 1981. Each has a nameplate capacity of 8 million tonnes per annum (mta) of LNG.
As the cross-Mediterranean trades in general expanded on the back of Algeria’s rising output, more tonnage was needed and the six ships purpose-built for the region were augmented with some of the early, pioneering LNG vessels. Deemed to be of a size eminently suitable for the relatively short routes involved:
- Methane Princess;
- Methane Progress;
- Jules Verne;
- Annabella;
- Isabella;
- Century and Havfru became common sights in the Middle Sea.
In 1991 the 35 500 m3 Annabella, with accommodation in place for 25 additional personnel, was made available to the industry as the world’s first LNG training ship. The ship was on long-term charter sailing between Algeria and Barcelona, a short passage which enabled trainees to experience both loading and discharge operations in the space of a week.
Spain’s second receiving terminal, at Huelva, opened for business in July 1988 with the delivery by the 35 500 m3 Isabella of a cargo of Algerian LNG. As it is located on the Atlantic side of the Strait of Gibraltar, whether or not Huelva qualifies as a Mediterranean port is a moot point.
Spain’s third import terminal, at Cartagena to the south of Alicante, most definitely does, and it was commissioned the following year. The facility received most of its early cargoes from Algeria and, at 115 nautical miles (213 km), the Arzew-to-Cartagena LNG route is the shortest across the Mediterranean. The country’s complement of Mediterranean receiving facilities is completed by the SAGGAS terminal at Sagunto, near Valencia, where the first cargo was discharged in April 2006.
Turkey joined the ranks of the Mediterranean LNG import countries in 1994 when a new terminal was opened at Marmara Ereglisi on the Sea of Marmara. The Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp (Botas) immediately commenced LNG imports under a contract with Algeria covering the delivery of up to 3 mta of LNG over 20 years. The 130 000 m3 Bachir Chihani, a vessel belonging to Hyproc, the shipping affiliate of Sonatrach in Algeria, delivered five cargoes from Arzew during 1994 to initiate the contract. Turkey’s second import terminal, the Egegaz facility at Aliaga on the Aegean Sea, received its first LNG cargo in December 2006.
A new trade started in February 2 000 when the 29 000 m3 Century delivered the inaugural cargo, from Algeria, to the Revithoussa LNG import terminal in Greece. Revithoussa has recently received government permission for the construction of a third tank, which will boost the facility’s storage capacity by 75 percent.
By the mid-1990s shipowners were reviewing their fleets and considering their newbuilding requirements. To realise economies of scale in the growing cross-Mediterranean trades, it was decided that the optimum new Medmax size would be in the 65 000–75 000 m3 range. SNAM of Italy made the first move, ordering a pair of steam turbine-driven, 65 000 m3 vessels at the Sestri yard in Genoa. They entered service as LNG Portovenere and LNG Lerici in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Each ship is provided with four Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT) № 96 membrane tanks.
Hyproc followed a decade later with a pair of 75 500 m3 LNG carriers ordered at Universal Shipbuilding’s Tsu yard. Cheikh El Mokrani was delivered in June 2007 and Cheikh Bouamama in July 2008. Mitsui OSK Lines is a joint owner of the steam turbine ships, each of which has four GTT Mark III membrane tanks.
Gaz de France (now GDF Suez) also contracted a new Medmax ship. Delivered in December 2006 by Chantiers de l’Atlantique, the 74 100 m3 GDF Suez Global Energy is the first vessel to be ordered with a dual-fuel diesel-electric propulsion system, now the most popular power option amongst LNGC owners.
Over the past decade the cross-Mediterranean trades have continued to flourish. In 2005 Egypt commissioned two new export projects. In January the single-train SEGAS terminal at Damietta, 60 km west of Port Said, opened. The plant’s 5 mta capacity is provided by what was then the largest liquefaction train yet built. Four months later, in May, the two-train, 7,2 mta Egyptian LNGC plant at Idku, 50 km east of Alexandria, entered service.
Due to the location of these terminals in the eastern Mediterranean, some distance from the region’s receiving terminals, it was always envisaged that conventional size LNG carriers would be used to load cargoes at the Egyptian sites. This is evidenced by the carriers chosen for the inaugural shipments. The 138 000 m3 Cádiz Knutsen lifted the first cargo at Damietta while the 137 100 m3 Puteri Zamrud Satu did the honours at Idku.
Unfortunately Egypt’s days in the sun were short-lived. The tumult of the Arab Spring uprising and burgeoning domestic demand for gas have reduced LNG exports to a trickle, and the country is considering LNG imports.
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, four new import facilities have commenced operations in recent years. Cavaou, the second Fos terminal, received its first cargo in 2010. Italy has brought two offshore facilities into service – Adriatic LNG in 2009 and FSRU Toscana in 2013 – while Israel also commenced imports using a regasification vessel in 2013.
The expansion of the Mediterranean’s LNG production infrastructure also shows no sign of slowing. Algeria is bringing two new liquefaction trains – one at Skikda and one at Arzew – into service while Cyprus and Israel are both weighing up LNG export options for their large, newly discovered offshore gas fields.
The long-running story of Alaskan LNG
The Kenai terminal in Alaska began exporting cargoes 45 years ago, using a pair of pioneering ships and setting a number of Pacific Rim LNG precedents along the way.
Marathon Oil discovered the Kenai gas field in the US state of Alaska in 1959 while Phillips Petroleum and other partners found the nearby North Cook Inlet gas field in 1962. With no local demand the companies looked to overseas markets for the natural gas. The customer search achieved success in March 1967 when Phillips and Marathon signed a 15-year agreement with Tokyo Electric Power and Tokyo Gas for the delivery of 1 million tonnes of LNG per annum.
To cover the transport of this gas, bids were invited for the construction of two 71 500 m3 LNG carriers. At a hastily organised meeting at Phillips Petroleum headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, rival cargo containment specialists pitched their products. Representatives from Conch and McMullen promoted self-supporting tanks while Technigaz and Gaz Transport each espoused the merits of its particular membrane tank design.
The invar primary and secondary barrier concept won the day and Gaz Transport was awarded the contract to have the vessels built with its membrane cargo containment system. In July 1967 Kockums Mekaniska Verkstads of Malmö, Sweden secured the order to construct what were to become the first vessels in commercial service fitted with Key Characteristics of Membrane Tanks SystemsGaz Transport membrane tanks. Kockums had quoted a price of US $ 25 million for each ship.
Rather than the shipbuilder, Phillips Petroleum signed the license with Gaz Transport. The arrangement effectively gave Kockums permission to use the containment system and it was the only Gaz Transport license agreement not signed and paid for by the shipbuilder.
Polar Alaska was completed in August 1969 while sistership Arctic Tokyo followed in December of the same year. Each of the steam turbine ships had six cargo tanks, an ice-strengthened hull and a service speed of 17 knots. Both were operated by Marathon Oil and both were provided with bow thrusters because it was expected that there would be no tug services regularly available at the Kenai terminal in Alaska to assist with berthing.
Polar Alaska arrived at the new Nikiski plant on Kenai peninsula in southern Alaska on 15 October 1970 and, after initial cooldown, testing and loading, departed for Japan on 26 October. The ship tied up at the Negishi terminal near Yokohama on 4 November and cargo discharge operations were completed on 11 November following an intial cooldown of the facility.
The shipment was the first export of LNG from the US and the first import of LNG into Japan and Asia. The second ship, Arctic Tokyo, completed discharge of her first cargo at Negishi on 11 March 1970.
During Polar Alaska’s return ballast passage gas was detected in the inner barrier spaces in the forward № 1 cargo tank. The cargo heel in this tank, used to keep the tank cool on the return voyage, was in the 15-20 percent fill range.
Following the emptying of the cargo heel and gas-freeing of the tank, it was found that the electric cable supports of one of the submerged cargo pumps had been damaged and debris moving within the liquid had punctured the invar primary barrier in several places.
№ 1 tank was taken out of service and, with Gaz Transport personnel attending, a repair was completed in a few days at a Yokohama ship repair yard. Polar Alaska returned to full service following the invar repairs.
The cable damage on Polar Alaska at the outset of her working life introduced the LNG shipping industry to the phenomenon of cargo sloshing. Membrane containment systems, with the large free surface areas afforded by the open space inside the tank, are particularly susceptible to the large sloshing loads that can be generated while proceeding in a seaway.
The incident resulted in a major rethink on aspects such as the shape of membrane cargo tanks and filling limits. Following Polar Alaska, the size of the chamfered corners on membrane tanks was increased and filling limits were imposed. One condition that was introduced, for example, was that cargo heel should not exceed the 5 percent fill level.
Aside from a short period in 2012-13 in which the facility was mothballed due to dwindling gas supplies, the Kenai liquefaction plant has remained in service for 45 years, making it by far the oldest such facility in the world. New gas discoveries have resulted in its recent reactivation and Kenai is scheduled to load six LNG cargoes in 2014.
Brunei targets its own 50th anniversary
The Brunei-Japan project, the world’s first large-scale LNG scheme, is now on a second contract extension and heading towards a half century of operations.
On 15 December 1972 the 75 000 m3 membrane tank LNG carrier Gadinia discharged a cargo at the new Senboku 1 terminal of Osaka Gas in Osaka Bay. This historic delivery marked not only the first shipment of LNG from Brunei to Japan but also the start of the world’s first large-scale LNG project. At the same time, the sultanate became only the fourth country to export LNG.
The Brunei LNG dream started in 1968 when Shell discovered promising gas fields off the country’s coast. Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) joined in the effort to prove the reserves and it soon became apparent that there was enough gas to support what was then still the rather unusual idea of an LNG export project. The demand for gas in Japan, a country without any indigenous resources, provided the incentive to overcome the challenges associated with mounting the project.
In August 1969 MC and Shell established Coldgas Trading, an LNG marketing company, as a 50/50 joint venture and in December 1969 Brunei LNG was created as the LNG production company. Shell and MC each took a 45 per cent stake in Brunei LNG while the Brunei government held the remaining 10 percent.
Tokyo Electric, Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas were quick to express an interest in the Brunei gas and in June 1970 the three utilities signed up for the delivery of 3,65 million tonnes per annum (mta) of LNG for a period of 20 years from a new liquefaction plant to be built at Lumut. Even before the Lumut plant started, the principals agreed to incremental volumes which pushed the aggregate sales total to 5,14 mta.
The sales agreements also prompted orders for seven 75 000 m3 LNG carriers from shipyards in France. Five of the ships sported the original version of the Technigaz membrane containment system while the other two were built to the original Gaz Transport membrane design.
The Lumut complex was built with five equally sized liquefaction trains and a total production capacity of 7,6 mta. Shallow waters in the area required the construction of a 4 km jetty and berthed ships took on cargo through a special stern loading arrangement.
By 1986, following agreement amongst the principals, the Brunei government’s share in the venture had been increased to 50 percent, while Shell and MC each retained a 25 percent stake. Brunei LNG later absorbed the Coldgas marketing activities. The 1986 realignment also encompassed the establishment of Brunei Shell Tankers and the names of the seven ships were changed from the original Shell names to those beginning with the letter B. Each vessel was given a Malay name for one of the local fish species.
In March 1993 Brunei LNG concluded a 20-year extension contract with Tokyo Electric, Tokyo Gas and Osaka Gas, at a level of 6,01 mta, and in 1997 a long-term sales contract, for 0,7 mta and spanning 16 years, was also signed with Korea Gas Corporation (Kogas).
Prior to the expiry of the first contract with the Japanese utilities the Brunei LNG plant was given a revamp. Two new storage tanks were built along with a new jetty able to accommodate conventional midships loading operations.
To meet its transport needs Brunei LNG has charter arrangements with both Brunei Shell Tankers and Brunei Gas Carriers. Brunei Shell Tankers provided the original seven B-class LNG carriers but this fleet of ageing vessels is slowly being replaced by new, larger A-class ships for which Brunei Gas Carriers is responsible.
The A-class ships, at double the size of the project’s pioneering vessels, are enabling increased efficiencies in delivering cargoes, not least through a reduction in fleet size. There are now three A-class LNG carriers in service while a fourth is under construction at Hyundai Heavy Industries and due for delivery in 2014. As the new ships join the fleet, the old B-class ships are slowly being removed from service and sent to breakers’ yards for recycling.
In March 2012 Brunei LNG agreed a new contract extension with its original Japanese customers, but at a reduced volume of 3,4 mta and a reduced duration of 10 years, from April 2013. The new arrangement has set the scene for 50 years of operations for this pioneering project.
Politics, misfortune and price sideline El Paso
El Paso ambitiously ordered nine 125 000 m3 LNGCs in the 1970s to ship Algerian LNG to the US, only for the trade to cease spectacularly in 1980.
In 1969 El Paso Natural Gas Company and Sonatrach, the national oil and gas company of Algeria, agreed a long-term contract calling for the shipment of Algerian LNG to the US. Cargoes would be transported from Arzew in Algeria to new terminals at Cove Point, Maryland and Elba Island near Savannah, Georgia.
El Paso recognised that it would require a fleet of nine steam turbine-driven Propulsion Trends in LNG Carriers: The Shift from Steam to Dual-Fuel Diesel and Electric SystemsLNG carriers to service its new venture. The company split the newbuilding contract equally between three shipyards, with each builder choosing a different containment system. There was fierce rivalry between the promoters of the Conch, Gaz Transport and Technigaz systems at the time and El Paso was assiduously courted by each of the designers before the ships were ordered. Triumphant «breakthrough» announcements followed the signing of each newbuilding contract.
El Paso ordered two LNGCs at Chantiers de France-Dunkerque in 1970 and a third carrier was later added to the original pair. At 125 000 m3, the trio were the largest LNGCs ever ordered. The size quickly became the accepted norm for «conventional» LNG carriers and remained the industry standard until well into the 1990s when LNG trade volumes and ship cargo-carrying capacities began to increase markedly.
The three French-built ships were delivered as El Paso Paul Kayser in July 1975, El Paso Sonatrach in June 1976 and El Paso Consolidated in January 1977. The Gaz Transport № 85 membrane cargo containment system with invar primary and secondary barriers was chosen for the trio and each ship had six cargo tanks, including a smaller tank amidships.
Domestic US politics and funding from the US Maritime Administration (MarAd) helped determine where the remaining six 125 000 m3 ships would be built. El Paso ordered three ships at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock in Virginia in September 1972 and the final three at Avondale Shipyards near New Orleans, Louisiana in July 1973. No LNG carrier had previously been built at a US yard.
The original Newport News contract was based on the use of a Chicago Bridge and Iron spherical tank design but the principals subsequently decided to opt for a Technigaz membrane Mark I containment system before construction work began. This concept featured a stainless steel primary barrier and a maple plywood secondary barrier. The newbuilding price for each ship was US $ 101 million, with a MarAd subsidy covering 25,74 percent of the cost.
Newport News extended its capabilities by constructing a new shipyard adjacent to its existing building berths. The centrepiece of the new yard was a 76 m-wide building basin dock with a 900-tonne gantry crane. The arrangement allowed for the simultaneous construction of one complete LNGC and part of another.
The overall layout of the Newport News vessels was similar to that of the French-built trio. Each ship had six cargo tanks, including a smaller tank used for pre-cooling the main tanks prior to loading. The Newport News ships were delivered as:
- El Paso Southern in April 1978;
- El Paso Arzew in December 1978;
- and El Paso Howard Boyd in June 1979.
The Conch containment system was chosen for the Avondale newbuildings, with each vessel being provided with five aluminium alloy, self-supporting, prismatic cargo tanks. Each of the three cost US $ 103 m to build and in this case the MarAd subsidy covered 16,5 percent of the total outlay.
The ends and sides of the Conch cargo tanks were internally stiffened with vertical aluminium extrusions supported by horizontal ring stringers. A liquid-tight centreline bulkhead and a transverse swash bulkhead were fitted in each tank. The cargo tanks were insulated by means of layers of sprayed polyurethane foam (PUF) applied to the ship’s inner hull. Bottom load-bearing balsawood/plywood composite panels supported the weight of the tanks and cargo. Centreline anti-rolling support keyways and transverse top keys held the tanks in place.
Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corp was subcontracted to construct the cargo tanks and supply and apply the insulation. Kaiser set up an assembly plant on Pinto Island near Mobile, Alabama to construct the tanks and used a facility at Wilmington, North Carolina for the prefabrication of panels of aluminium plate and stiffeners. These units were then shipped by barge to Pinto Island for the final tank assembly.
Once Avondale completed its work on the vessels, including spraying PUF insulation on the inner hulls, the open hulls were towed to Pinto Island for the installation of the tanks. As each cargo tank weighed, on average, 950 tonnes, the mammoth 1 550-tonne crane at the Kaiser assembly plant was able to position them onboard without any undue problems.
The three Conch ships – El Paso Columbia, El Paso Cove Point and El Paso Savannah – were all completed in 1979. Unfortunately, extensive cracking of the PUF foam was discovered throughout the insulation during the vessels’ gas trials. As a result El Paso refused to accept the Avondale ships. After many years of claim and counter claim, extensive layup periods and much debate, it was decided that the ships could not be economically repaired for LNG trading. El Paso received a US $ 300 m insurance settlement.
El Paso Cove Point and El Paso Savannah were later sold to Coastal Corp and taken to the Hyundai Mipo repair yard in Korea to be converted to bulk carriers. The aluminium cargo tanks were removed and reused ashore and the boiler and steam turbine propulsion systems were altered to enable them to burn coal. In 1983 the ships began to trade commercially as Jade Phoenix and Golden Phoenix, respectively. In March 1987 El Paso Columbia, the first of the Avondale trio, arrived at Kaohsiung in Taiwan to be broken up for recycling.
The colour scheme chosen for the El Paso fleet, allegedly for safety reasons, gave the nine ships an eye-catching appearance. A research study to determine an external hull colour scheme which would allow maximum visibility under various atmospheric and sea conditions resulted in a distinctive beige-orange-dark brown colour combination.
El Paso suffered more ill-fortune in June 1979 when the fully laden El Paso Paul Kayser ran hard aground on rocks in the Straits of Gibraltar enroute to Cove Point from Algeria. The vessel was travelling at a considerable speed when the incident happened and the hull structure below the waterline was extensively damaged. The impact caused some upward movement of the inner hull supporting the membrane cargo containment system but the membrane remained intact and no cargo was lost. The ship was later refloated, thanks to part lightening of some cargo to the 25 500 m3 Jules Verne. The remaining cargo was later transferred to sister ship El Paso Sonatrach.
Algeria stopped shipments under the El Paso contract in April 1980, after the US refused to accept a request that the price of gas be increased to a level close to that of crude oil. In February 1981 El Paso announced that «In view of the remote prospects for project resumption the company considers its LNG activities to be a discontinued operation».
Cove Point received 31 Algerian cargoes on the French-built trio and 29 on the Newport News ships. At Elba Island 22 cargoes were discharged by the El Paso Paul Kayser series and 18 by the El Paso Southern series. Between 1978 and 1980 a neat, but somewhat disappointing, 100 cargoes of LNG from Arzew were delivered to the Cove Point and Elba Island import terminals. Both Cove Point and Elba Island were mothballed following the demise of the Algerian trade.
The French-built trio were all scrapped back in the 1980s. El Paso Paul Kayser was the first to be broken up, in Taiwan in 1986. The next year El Paso Consolidated ended her days at a Chinese breakers yard. El Paso Sonatrach was sold to the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company in 1983 for a storage project and renamed Al Rawdatain. The ship was sold for recycling as Alar in China in 1987.
Following the demise of the Algeria-US trade the three Newport News ships remained in lay-up for 18 years on the James River in Virginia. El Paso Southern and El Paso Arzew were reactivated in the late 1990s to load cargoes at Nigeria LNG’s Bonny Island terminal under charter to Shell as, respectively, LNG Delta and Galeomma. The 35-year old pair were despatched to the Far East for dismantling in 2013. The third Newport News-built ship El Paso Howard Boyd, now Matthew, is the only one of the original nine El Paso ships still trading.
At the time the El Paso Algeria/US initiative was the most ambitious LNG project ever mounted. It also turned out to be the largest to be brought to a halt as a result of outside economic forces. Furthermore, the failure of the Conch insulation system on the three Avondale ships was the most expensive mishap in the history of LNGC construction. Still, the sheer enterprise of the El Paso scheme at the birth of the LNG trades.
Quincy takes early spherical tank lead
While Quincy’s sojourn in the LNG spotlight was short-lived, the General Dynamics yard packed more into a few short years than any other shipbuilder at the time.
The US, or more specifically the Quincy yard of General Dynamics, was the most prolific builder of Moss spherical tank ships during the early days. Between 1977 and 1980 the yard built ten 126 300 m3 ships with spherical tank containment systems. At the time the 10th Quincy LNG carrier was delivered only five other Moss vessels of this size had ever been built.
Called the Aquarius class, the first eight Quincy ships were constructed for the carriage of Indonesian LNG to Japan under a long-term agreement. The vessels were bareboat chartered to Burmah Gas Transport, time chartered by the Indonesia state oil and gas company Pertamina and operated by Energy Transportation Corp.
The final two ships were built for Lachmar and a proposed project which called for the transport of Algerian gas to a new US terminal at Lake Charles in Louisiana. All the Quincy ships entered into service as US-flag vessels manned by American crews.
Moss spheres were the most popular containment system during the early days of LNG transport. In 1969 the Norwegian shipowner Leif Höegh had asked Moss Verft, a local shipbuilder that had constructed many LPG carriers, to investigate the challenges of LNG transport. Moss, then part of the Kvaerner engineering group, decided that robust spheres offered the best option at the time.
After considering some earlier approaches to the design of small spherical tank ships, Moss opted to develop its own design for large LNG carriers. The work was assisted by the research department of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), and in mid-1970 the Moss spherical tank concept gained class society approval. By 1977 a total of 14 shipyards worldwide were licensees of the Moss system. General Dynamics Quincy was one of them.
The LNGC newbuilding contracts prompted some refurbishment work at the Quincy yard in Fore River, Massachusetts as well as a novel approach to the construction of the five 36,6 m diameter, aluminium cargo tanks required for each vessel. General Dynamics decided to construct the tanks as complete units at a new fabrication facility in Charleston, South Carolina and then to barge each individual 850-tonne tank up the US East Coast to Quincy. After a four-day, 1 400 km barge journey the tank was lifted and installed in position in the LNGC’s hull using the yard’s 1 200-tonne capacity gantry crane.
The 5 083 grade aluminium for the tanks was supplied by Alcoa from its Davenport, Iowa rolling mill. This facility, then the world’s largest aluminium rolling mill, was capable of turning out finished plates 5,25 m wide. Such large sections eased the sphere fabrication work at Charleston by reducing the number of pieces required and the amount of welding by 20 percent.
Fabrication of the spherical tanks at Charleston was accompanied by an elaborate programme of weld testing. The non-destructive testing regime included 100 percent X-ray, 100 percent ultrasonic and 100 percent dye penetrant checks as well as full visual and dimensional inspections. The plating thickness of the aluminium varied over the surface of the tank, from a maximum of 75 mm at the more highly stressed equatorial ring section to a minimum of 34 mm in the top half.
The Charleston facility was able to work on eight spherical tanks simultaneously:
- six under final assembly and welding in the assembly hall;
- one at the outside hydrostatic test station;
- and one in a building dedicated to the application of insulation.
Each sphere on the Quincy ships was fabricated from over 100 formed and machined aluminium plates, and about 100 km of precision welding was required to complete each tank.
Following assembly and prior to the hydrostatic test, each sphere was inspected by US Coast Guard and American Bureau of Shipping surveyors. The process of insulating the tanks in the dedicated building involved rotating a completed sphere and covering it with over 10 000 panels of polyurethane insulation to a thickness of 200 mm. The unit was then sealed with coatings of rubber and polyurethane.
Quincy completed its first ship, LNG Aquarius, in June 1977. All 10 of the yard’s LNG carriers were built to the same rigorous standard. The heavy hull scantlings, as typified by the 50 mm thick high-tensile steel deck plating, were in excess of those mandated by class, and the powerful 43 000 shp steam Exploring Different Turbine Propulsions for Liquefied Gas Carriersturbine propulsion systems provided a service speed of 20,4 knots.
The eight Aquarius-class ships marked the entry of Indonesia into the LNG community. The fleet loaded at the new export terminals that had been built at Bontang and Arun and discharged at four receiving terminals in Japan on behalf of five utility companies. Bontang loaded its first cargo in August 1977 and Arun in September 1978.
Initially the Burmah Gas Transport fleet was contracted, on behalf of Pertamina, to supply the Japanese utilities with 7,5 million tonnes per annum (mta) of LNG for 23 years, until 1999. Three of the Japanese companies subsequently signed up for additional small and variable volumes as new LNG production capacity was added at Bontang and Arun. It was not long before the fleet was delivering 150-160 cargoes annually, or 8-9 mta of LNG. Indonesia proceeded to build upon this strong debut with other projects and it was not long before the country was the world’s largest exporter of LNG.
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) is a Japanese shipowner that has enjoyed considerable success in the LNG sector through joint ownership ventures with a wide range of other shipping companies. In 1989 MOL acquired a 50 percent stake in Burmah Gas Transport, the beneficial owner of the vessels.
In the mid-1990s, as the 1999 expiry date on the original Pertamina charter was approaching, the vessels were put through life extension programmes under the guidance of Lloyd’s Register to give them a new lease of life. Pertamina renewed the charter on six of the ships, taking them for an additional 10 years. Alternative work was found for the remaining two vessels in the fleet. All the vessels were reflagged with the Marshall Islands registry in 2000. MOL, in tandem with LNG Japan, subsequently bought the 50 percent of the company it did not already own and Burmah Gas Transport was renamed BGT.
By 2014 MOL had ceased its involvement with all but one of the BGT ships. One had been sold for scrap, one to Höegh LNG, two to a Singapore company and three to General Dynamics. As one of the original financiers of the eight-ship fleet, General Dynamics held the title on the three ships in question. MOL retains a holding in a joint venture operating LNG Aquarius, the original ship in the series. The vessel is being employed in shuttle duties in Indonesia.
The final two Quincy ships had a much less intensive working life than the Aquarius-class vessels, at least early on. The pair, Lake Charles and Louisiana, were built for Lachmar, short for Lake Charles Marine. Lachmar was a joint venture 40 percent owned by Panhandle Eastern, 40 percent by General Dynamics and 20 percent by Moore-McCormack Lines.
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Panhandle Eastern had signed a gas purchase agreement with Algeria covering the delivery of 3,4 mta of LNG from Skikda to Lake Charles. The new receiving terminal there was operated by Trunkline, a Panhandle affiliate. Unfortunately the project never became established. The Lachmar transportation agreement and the LNG purchase agreement with Sonatrach of Algeria were suspended in 1984 due to unfavourable market conditions. A key factor was the discovery of large quantities of gas in the US following deregulation of domestic gas prices.
As a result Lake Charles and Louisiana spent 12 of their first 20 years in layup. Although their idle time was interrupted by short bursts of employment, by the end of 1999 each of the two ships had made less than 100 loaded voyages, under 20 percent of the number logged by their Quincy sisterships.
However, in the latter half of the 1990s there was a global resurgence of interest in LNG, and the Lachmar pair caught the eye of Nigeria LNG (NLNG). The new gas exporter decided to charter the second-hand vessels as a way of quick-starting shipments from the liquefaction plant it was building on Bonny Island. The agreement included an option to purchase the ships.
After spending four months at EN Bazan in Spain in 1999 undergoing reactivation work, Lake Charles and Louisiana departed the shipyard as LNG Abuja and LNG Edo. The refurbishment project had set the vessels up for a further 20 years of active trading in the carriage of Nigerian exports and NLNG was quick to exercise its purchase option. The pair were flagged with the Bahamas registry, and Denholm Ship Management was appointed to undertake their operation.
Any LNG carrier approaching 40 years of age will have accumulated some notable history and the same is certainly true of the 10 Quincy ships.
