South Korea’s Hanwha Ocean has officially started building a new 174,000-cbm LNG carrier for BW LNG, a unit of Singapore-based gas shipping giant BW.
BW LNG announced the steel-cutting ceremony in a social media post on Thursday for one of its four LNG newbuilds.
The ceremony for the vessel with hull number 2544 took place on July 24 at the Hanwha Ocean yard in Geoje.
Back in 2022, BW LNG confirmed orders for four 174,000-cbm LNG carriers at Hanwha Ocean, previously known as DSME.
According to BW LNG’s website, this vessel with number 2544 is the third in that batch.
The vessel features ME-GI propulsion, full reliquefaction system, air lubrification system and shaft generators, giving “superior fuel consumption and best-in-class emissions,” BW LNG claims.
Hanwha Ocean will deliver the four new LNG carriers to the owner in 2025.
Including these newbuilds, BW LNG has 30 vessels in its fleet.
This includes 10 steam carriers built between 2003 and 2008, 7 TFDE vessels, and the rest are ME-GI ships.
In addtion, BW LNG has five floating storage and regasification units.
The FSRUs are BW Batangas, BW Integrity, BW Magna, and BW Tatiana.
Last year, BW LNG sold its 2015-built FSRU BW Singapore to Italy’s Snam for about $400 million.