China’s state-owned energy giant CNOOC said that the world’s largest liquefied natural gas bunkering vessel has completed the first loading operation at its Ningbo LNG import facility in Zhejiang.
According to a statement by CNOOC’s gas and power unit, the 30,000-cbm Hai Yang Shi You 301 docked at the Zhejiang LNG terminal on June 11 and completed the loading operation after some 14 hours.
With this, the Zhejiang terminal became the first facility in Zhejiang province to provide LNG for LNG bunkering vessels, CNOOC Gas & Power said.
This follows jetty upgrade works at the facility to allow smaller vessels to be able to load LNG from the terminal’s tanks.
In the next step, Hai Yang Shi You 301 will carry out the first bonded LNG refueling operation for international vessels in the Ningbo-Zhoushan port, CNOOC Gas & Power said.
In November last year, CSSC’s Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) converted this 184.7 meters long LNG carrier with Wartsila DF engines and TGE Marine type C tanks to enable it to perform ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operations.
The converted vessel now has a capacity to deliver up to 1650 cbm of LNG per hour during an STS operation.
The 30,000-cbm LNG bunkering vessel completed its first bunkering operation in the Yantian port in Shenzhen on January 18.
It delivered about 6,000 cbm of LNG to the 23,000-teu CMA CGM Concorde during the operation.
Besides the Yantian port, CNOOC Gas & Power said at the time that it plans to expand LNG bunkering operations to other ports in 2023, such as the Ningbo port and the Guangzhou port.