According to a statement by Jiangnan, the shipbuilder and EPS signed the shipbuilding contract for six 150,000-cbm vessels on August 26.
CSSC’s Jiangnan said the “Magnolia ULEC”, developed by the shipbuilder, will feature GTT’s Mark III containment system.
Classed by ABS, the ULEC will also be able to carry ethylene and LPG.
Jiangnan did not provide the price tag of the contract or delivery dates of the vessels.
LNG Prime reported on August 5, citing shipbuilding sources, that China’s Satellite Chemical (STL) will charter a fleet of up to ten of the world’s largest ethane carriers to ship US ethane to China.
Sources said at the time that six vessels will be built by China’s Jiangnan and up to four vessels will be built by South Korea’s HD Hyundai Heavy.
The six vessels at Jiangnan are each worth about $200 million and scheduled for delivery in 2027.
STL is proceeding with the third phase of its giant petrochemical complex in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.
The firm needs to secure shipping capacity to import ethane from Energy Transfer’s Nederland terminal in Texas and Enterprise’s Morgan’s Point ethylene export terminal in Texas, the sources said.
This third phase expansion of STL’s complex adopts ULEC in order to optimize shipping costs.
The current very large ethane carriers which ship ethane to the facility in Lianyungang have a capacity of about 98,000 cbm.
STL also charters these vessels from shipowners such as EPS and Malaysia’s MISC, a unit of Petronas.
The first VLEC vessels that were ordered to serve STL in 2020 were each priced at about $115 million.
“LNG cargo ready”
Besides GTT’s Mark III containment system, the new vessels will feature MAN ME-GI propulsion, and will use ethane as fuel.
In addition to shipping ethane, these are “LNG cargo ready” ships, meaning they can be retrofitted to serve as LNG carriers, FSRUs, or FSUs without upgrading the vessel’s tank, pumps, and the main engine.
According to the website of French LNG containment giant GTT, ULEC is a concept introduced by the company in 2018.
American Ethane (AEC) was the first to consider this type of vessel, but the project did not materialize.
GTT developed a 150,000-cbm multi-gases carrier able to carry either ethane, ethylene, or LNG.
The vessel has been modified to carry ethane as a prime cargo and LNG as a “fall-back”, in order to give confidence to asset buyer through flexibility of trade, it said.
South Korean order
Besides securing six slots at Jiangnan, STL also secured four slots at HD Hyundai Heavy for ultra large ethane carriers with delivery slots scheduled for 2027.
The sources told LNG Prime that this order, which includes 2 to 4 vessels, is expected to be finalized “soon”.
MISC, China’s Pacific Gas, and Stonepeak’s Seapeak are competing to win the charter deal with STL for these vessels, the sources said, adding that Pacific Gas will “very likely” secure the contract.
