An LNG carrier controlled by Golar LNG has left a Chinese shipyard following its conversion into a floating storage and regasification unit.

The 140,000-cbm Golar Viking (built 2005) left Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group)'s Huarun Dadong Dockyard on Saturday, after being formally delivered by the shipbuilder on 15 September.

The vessel, which has been painted with its new name LNG Croatia, appears to be heading to South Korea, presumably for cooldown and gassing up operations.

It is due to arrive off Krk Island, Croatia, in the northern Adriatic Sea before the end of October.

The Golar Viking job is the first LNG carrier-to-FSRU conversion for Hudong-Zhonghua.

The shipbuilder's sales and marketing director Ning Shen described it as a "landmark step" for the shipyard, in a social media post.

In 2018 Golar Power, a joint venture between Golar LNG and Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, won the job of converting Golar Viking based a bid of €159.6m ($179.7m).

Golar Power has since been relaunched as Hygo Energy Transition and is in the process of listing its shares in the US.

The new terminal manager LNG Croatia said the FSRU will offer a nominal regasification capacity of 300,000 cbm per hour or 2.6bn cbm per annum.

The unit, which is to be sited in Sepen Bay, will work with an open loop system.

The long-planned Krk island terminal is due to be operational from 1 January.

The new Croatian facility will supply gas to the domestic market and the wider region.

Qatari trader Powerglobe, the energy arm of Optimized Holding, has booked capacity at the new Croatian facility equal to 468m cbm per annum over a 15-year period.

LNG Croatia plans to expand with an onshore terminal in a second phase.