Ocean Yield ASA has announced the delivery of the 38,000 cbm liquefied ethylene gas carrier “Gaschem Beluga” from Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering in China. The vessel is the first of two sister vessels to be delivered, and the second vessel has scheduled delivery on July 1st 2017.
Upon delivery the vessel commenced a 15-year “hell and high water” bareboat charter to the Hartmann Group (“Hartmann”) and the vessel will enter into a 10 year sub-charter to SABIC Petrochemicals B.V (“SABIC”) upon arrival in Houston in December. The vessel will be used for shipments of ethane from Houston to SABIC’s cracker in Teeside,UK.
The eco-friendly LEG carrier is of ECO STAR design, developed by Hartmann. The vessel is equipped with MAN B&W dual fuel 2-stroke engine and can operate on different fuels including ethane. A new “Star-Trilobe” tank allows for an increase in capacity by nearly 30% compared to the traditional “bilobe” tanks with the same ship dimensions.
Ocean Yield ASA’s Chief Executive Officer Lars Solbakken said in a comment:
“We are pleased to take delivery of the Gaschem Beluga which has a very innovative design and will be used to transport ethane for one of the world’s largest petrochemicals manufacturers.”
Source: Ocean Yield
