China’s Hudong-Zhonghua has officially started building one 18,600-cbm LNG bunkering vessel for French energy giant TotalEnergies.
The shipbuilder held a steel-cutting ceremony for the newbuild (H1930A) on March 3, attended by officials from Spain’s Ibaizabal, Bureau Veritas (BV), and others.
The shipowner of the vessel is Ibaizabal and the operator is TotalEnergies.
Hudong-Zhonghua said the new LNG bunkering vessel will be 135.9 meters long, 24.5 meters wide, and 16 meters deep.
In July 2024, Hudong-Zhonghua confirmed that it had secured this order to build one 18,600-cbm LNG bunkering vessel for TotalEnergies.
This new vessel will be similar to the 135 meters long 18,600-cbm LNG bunkering ships, Gas Vitality and Gas Agility, Hudong-Zhonghua previously built for owner Japan’s MOL and charterer TotalEnergies.
However, this 2.0 version has “better ship-to-shore compatibility, lower energy consumption and emission, and better energy saving and environmental protection,” Hudong-Zhonghua said.
Hudong-Zhonghua held a naming ceremony for Gas Vitality in October 2021 and the vessel arrived in France in December the same year.
It is the first LNG bunkering vessel to be based in France.
Gas Vitality has specifications similar to those of its sister ship, Gas Agility, which works for TotalEnergies from the Dutch port of Rotterdam.