South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean has officially kicked off construction on 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 for its fourth LNG newbuild in a social media post.
The ceremony for the vessel with hull number 2545 took place on August 21 at the Hanwha Ocean yard in Geoje.
In 2022, BW LNG confirmed orders for four 174,000-cbm LNG carriers at Hanwha Ocean, previously known as DSME.
The fourth vessel in this batch and its sister vessels feature ME-GI propulsion, a full reliquefaction system, an air lubrification system, and shaft generators.
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 addition, BW LNG owns four 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.