China’s Yangzijiang Shipbuilding said the world’s largest dual-fuel LNG tank carrier, owned by Tiger Gas, has completed both its sea and gas trials.
Hong Kong-based Tiger Gas, led by former Seaspan CEO Gerry Wang, has four LNG ISO tank carriers on order at Yangzijiang.
The first vessel in this batch, Tiger Longkou, completed its trials this week, Yangzijiang said in a statement on Thursday. This included completing the vessel’s first LNG bunkering operation earlier this month.
Yangziang said last month it would deliver this ship by the end of December, four months ahead of the previously planned delivery in April 2022.
It has also launched the second ship, Tiger Maanshan, on November 5. Yangziang should deliver this vessel in 2022.
Tiger Gas first ordered two of these vessels in June last year and after that confirmed two more options in December.
The 192 meters long vessels will have LNG dual-fuel engines and also feature type C tanks. CSSC Hudong Heavy Machinery provides the engines and the fuel gas supply system (FGSS), according to Yangzijiang.
Yangzijiang said the ships would operate at a speed of 16 knots and while sailing on LNG would have a range of up to 5,000 nautical miles.
All of the ships will be capable of transporting ISO tanks in both deep sea and inland waters such as the Yangtze River.
They will have a capacity to carry 690 40ft LNG ISO tanks or about 15,000 tons of LNG.
Tiger Gas will use these vessels to mainly transport ISO tanks from Malaysia to China.
Malaysia’s Petronas has earlier this year started exporting LNG to China in ISO tanks, as part of a deal with Tiger Clean Energy, a unit of Tiger Gas.