Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation’s liquefied natural gas carrier, Huashan, has completed both its sea and gas trials in four and a half days, setting a record for the shortest trials of a large LNG carrier, according to Chinese shipbuilder Hudong-Zhonghua.
The 174,000-cbm LNG carrier returned to the yard on April 24 after completing the “two-in-one” trial, Hudong-Zhonghua said in a statement.
Previously, CSSC Shipping’s, LNG Geneva, broke the record by completing trials in five and a half days.
CSSC’s Hudong-Zhonghua held a keel-laying ceremony for this 295 meters long LNG carrier with a hull number H1835A in May last year, and launched the vessel in October the same year.
This is the fifth LNG carrier the shipbuilder built for compatriot Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation and PetroChina.
It delivered the first and the second LNG carrier under the PCI project, Shaolin and Wu Dang, in 2022, the third carrier, Kun Lun, in March last year, and the fourth carrier, Emei, in December last year.
Hudong-Zhonghua also recently launched the sixth carrier under the PCI project, and is building the seventh and eighth vessel as part of the third stage of the Cosco Shipping-PetroChina project.
United Liquefied Gas Shipping, a joint venture in which Cosco Shipping has an 81 percent stake and partner PetroChina holds the rest, ordered these last two LNG carriers in July 2023.
All of the eight vessels have WinGD X-DF dual-fuel engines and GTT’s NO96 L03+ containment system, and will serve PetroChina under charter deals.