NYK orders apple tank LNG duo for Cameron project

Evolved from Moss type spherical tanks, apple type tanks upper half bulges more than the lower, enabling a near 16% increase in LNG carrying capacity

MAY 14, 2015 — Japan’s NYK has ordered two 165,000 cu.m LNG ships with apple shaped tanks to serve the Cameron LNG project in Louisiana.

NYK says that, on April 30, it concluded an agreement on a time-charter contract for two new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers with Mitsubishi Corporation subsidiary Diamond Gas International Pte. Ltd. and concluded a contract for the construction of the ships with MI LNG Company Limited, a 51/49 joint venture between Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Imabari Shipbuilding Co. Ltd.

The ships will be delivered in 2018 from Mitsubishi Heavy’s Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works.

Like the ships ordered previously for the Cameron LNG project (see earlier story), on addition to the apple-shaped tanks, which provide increased LNG-carrying capacity, the 293 m x 48.94 m next-generation carriers will also have a structure that reduces ship weight and air resistance and “STaGE” (Steam Turbine and Gas Engines) hybrid propulsion system.

STaGE consists of

• an Ultra Steam Turbine plant (UST), a highly efficient reheating steam turbine developed independently by MHI,
• a dual-fuel diesel engine capable of operating on both gas and oil, and
• an electric propulsion motor.

Plant efficiency is substantially improved through the UST’s effective use of the engine’s waste heat, resulting in a propulsion system enabling high-efficiency navigation throughout a full range of speeds.
Evolved from Moss type spherical tanks, apple type tanks upper half bulges more than the lower, enabling a near 16% increase in LNG carrying capacity