Chinese shipowner Saga LNG Shipping has unveiled a new design for a 6,000-cbm LNG bunker vessel (LNGBV) that would be built using its pioneering “A type” cargo tank.
Saga Shipping founder David Wu inked an agreement in principle for the design of what the company is calling a liquid methane bunkering vessel with ABS at the large LNG2019 meeting in Shanghai this week.
Wu, who has dubbed his LNGBV design “the future LNG truck of the port”, said 6,000-cbm is a large enough to serve ports and anchorages in the international markets.
The Saga chief said the price of the vessel will be “very cheap” and 10-20% lower than that of the vessels ordered at prices of around the $45m mark.
“We are starting to market it now,” he said,
“We believe in the small and mid-size LNG,” Wu said, “but after that [LNG] bunkering will become larger.”
He said that the LNG bunker vessels built to date have been very expensive but Saga LNG wants to create a more cost efficient one.
The company rejected the idea of the often-used C-type tank for its design in favour of simplify it with a single “A type” tank. Saga holds the rights to its own LNT A-Box ship design.
The company’s first foray into LNG newbuildings, the 45,000-cbm newbuilding Saga Dawn is due for delivery at the end of May or in early June, Wu said.
Landmark Capital-controlled Saga has not named the charterer which has fixed the ship for five years but Wu describes them as “an international first tier company.”
Wu said Saga has not decided which size of LNG carrier the company will build next. He is keen to upsize to an 80,000-cbm vessel but says customers like the 45,000-cbm size with some proposing a 60,000-cbm design.
He said once Saga Dawn delivers the company is teamed with Shanghai Merchant Ship Design & Research Institute (SDARI) to work on a design for a 180,000-cbm LNG carrier.
"So for “A Box” there is no limitation," he added.
