Spain’s Armon Gijon is moving forward with the construction of Knutsen’s 5,000-cbm LNG bunkering ship and the vessel recently received two tanks ahead of its planned delivery later this year.
Gas and Heat’s chairman, Mauro Evangelisti, confirmed the installation of the LNG cargo tanks in a social media post on Saturday.
The Italian LNG cargo systems manufacturer told LNG Prime last year that the firm was planning to deliver two 2,500-cbm, bilobe type C tanks to Armon Gijon in the first quarter of this year.
Gas and Heat won a contract from the Spanish yard in 2020 to design and build the LNG cargo and fueling system.
To remind, Norway’s Knutsen partnered with Enagas’ small-scale unit, Scale Gas, on the newbuild that will go on charter to Shell.
The vessel, to be named Haugesund Knutsen, will operate from the Port of Barcelona. VesselsValue data suggests it is worth about $41.3 million.
Besides supplying LNG, the 92.75 meters long ship, with a beam of 16.90 meters and a draught of 4.25 meters, will also run on liquefied natural gas.
LNG bunkering operations in Spain reached a record high last year as fueling infrastructure expanded and more LNG-powered vessels joined the global fleet.
Spanish ports hosted a total of 943 LNG ship bunkering operations in the January-December period, according to Spain’s Gasnam, an association that supports the promotion of LNG as fuel.
This marked a rise of 27 percent when compared to 741 operations in 2020, which also hit a record high.
Ports conducted a big part of these operations by a truck-to-ship method using multiple vehicles.
