Brokers said the vessel in question is the 2004-built 137,500-cbm, Dukhan.
The steam LNG carrier was sold on “as is” basis for delivery in Labuan, Malaysia.
Moreover, the price is said to be about $620 per ldt. This puts the total price at about $20.1 million.
The LNG carrier was anchored offshore Labuan, in Brunei Bay, on Monday, according to its AIS data provided by VesselsValue.
Duhkhan has been there since September last year, the data shows.
MOL’s large fleet of LNG tankers expanded to 106 vessels as of the end of December last year, and the company expects to have 108 LNG carriers in its fleet by the end of March 2025.
This includes LNG carriers owned and/or operated by joint venture companies.
Also, MOL previously said that it had about 30 LNG carriers on order.
Steam LNG carrier sales
This year, brokers reported at least two more sales of steam LNG carriers for scrap in addition to this sale.
This includes the recent sale by Greece’s Capital Gas of the 2002-built 137,100-cbm, Trader III, previously known as Puteri Intan Satu.
Prior to this, South Korea’s Hyundai LNG Shipping sold its 1996-built 127,100-cbm, Hyundai Greenpia, in January.
Martime consultancy Drewry recently released a new report saying it expects more than 50 percent of current steam LNG carriers to be demolished by the end of 2030, with some finding conversion opportunities.
According to Drewry, modern LNG carriers will replace these carriers, with high deliveries scheduled between 2024 and 2027.
Drewry expects more than 100 candidates to be potentially removed by 2030, and “considerable” scrapping will be required to restore the supply-demand balance.
According to Drewry, LNG shipping rates will start to stabilize in 2027 and follow an upward trajectory thereafter.
