Evergas says it will go ahead with the construction of a very large ethane carrier in support of a long-term export deal with its main customer, chemical giant Ineos.
The 95,000-cbm vessel will be used to ship ethane from the US Gulf Coast to a new third-party petrochemical facility being built in China. Evergas says the vessel will be the largest in its fleet of 23.
“We are very pleased to further strengthen our relationship with Ineos co-operating on the seabourne transportation of Ethane from the US to China,” said Steffen Jacobsen, chief executive of Evergas.
Evergas, the gas ship operating unit of Jacques de Chateauvieux's Jaccar Holdings, already has two 85,000-cbm VLECs on order at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Offshore.
It was not immediately clear if the newbuilding was part of the slate. An Ineos spokesperson declined to comment.
As TradeWinds reported last year, Jaccar Holdings originally had five ships on order with Dalian on behalf of Oriental Energy. But Oriental Energy was said to have problems securing long-term ethane supply to back the vessels, resulting in the order being scaled back.
Evergas already operates eight of the Dragon-class ethane carriers used to ferry ethane from the US to Ineos' European plants.
Along with its own feedstock needs, Ineos is targeting shipping and trading in gas liquids on behalf of other petrochemical customers.
"By bringing in US shale gas to China for the first time, we are now leading the way in shipping ethane worldwide to meet the needs of an expanding chemicals sector," said David Thompson, head of Ineos shipping and trading.
The vessels will be built using type C Tri-lobe VLEC tanks developed by Jaccar's JHW Engineering and Contracting, in co-operation with the Hartmann Group.
