Japan's Mitsui OSK Lines has switched a Q-Max-sized floating storage and regasification unit newbuilding into an LNG carrier after its charterer Uniper announced that it would be shifting to hydrogen at its Wilhelmshaven site in Germany rather than LNG.
South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering said on Friday that the contract on the 263,000-cbm FSRU had been changed and the value halved from the original KRW 410.6bn ($368.6m).
The yard said that under revised terms it will build an LNG carrier valued at KRW 226bn.
The newbuilding is due for delivery by October 2023.
DSME did not name the contracting party.
TradeWinds understands that the contract being referred to — DSME's sole FSRU — is the unit contracted by MOL in May 2020.
MOL will now build an LNG carrier at DSME instead. It is unclear if this will be contracted to Uniper, with whom the owner has worked previously on LNG tonnage.
Hydrogen hub
The original supersize FSRU was inked by the Japanese owner on the back of a charter with German trader Uniper's subsidary LNG Terminal Wilhelmshaven following a long build up to the project over several years.
But at the time the yard said the contract would only be fully signed off when a final investment decision had been taken on the project.
In January, the deal between the two on the FSRU newbuilding was put on ice while Uniper reviewed its energy transition strategies. The trader was also said to be concerned about the lack of firm import capacity bookings at the planned facility.
This week Uniper, which plans to make its European power business carbon neutral by 2035, announced, that it is undertaking a feasibility study to develop a national hydrogen hub at its site in Wilhelmshaven in northern Germany.
The company plans to include a terminal on the site for the import of green ammonia and an ammonia cracker for the production of hydrogen.
Commissioning of the new terminal is planned for the second half of this decade, the company said.
Uniper is also working on green methanol for marine fuelling. Both MOL officials and Uniper have been contacted for this article.
