South Korea’s Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries has started building the first out of seven LNG carriers for Norwegian shipowner Knutsen.
To mark the occasion, the yard held a steel-cutting ceremony on February 19 for hull No 8091.
Following delivery starting in 2022, all of these LR-classed 174,000 cbm vessels will go on charter to LNG giant Shell.
Shell revealed the charter deals with Knutsen but also other owners in three different realeases with the most recent one announced in December 2020. The firm will charter in total eighteen vessels of the same class under these deals out of which Knutsen will provide seven.
Hyundai Samho should deliver four vessels in this batch to Knutsen during 2022, followed by two ships in 2023, and the last vessel in 2024.
These LNG carriers will feature WinGD’s dual-fuel X-DF engines but also GTT’s Mark III Flex containment system.
Moreover, the 297 meters long vessels will have boil-off management plants, air lubrication systems, and shaft generators for auxiliary power along with optimized hull and design speed, according to Knutsen.
The vessels have a price tag of about $186 million, each.
In addition to these carriers, Knutsen also has two 174,000 cbm vessels on order at Hyundai Heavy Industries that will serve Poland’s PGNiG to ship its contracted supplies in the US.