Algerian energy company Sonatrach is opting for a different approach as it puts the last of its 1980s-built LNG carriers up for sale for demolition.
Sonatrach’s shipowning arm, Hyproc Shipping, offered the 126,130-cbm Ramdane Abane (built 1981) for sale by tender this week.
Demolition brokers list the 38-year-old ship as being of 29,931 ldt and said Hyproc has specified delivery will be “as is” in Algeria.
Databases show the Ramdane Abane is the 11th-oldest ship in the world LNG carrier fleet.
Its sale marks the departure of the last of Hyproc’s first-generation LNG carriers. It has been gradually selling off its older vessels as part of a renewal process, but this has sometimes proved an uphill struggle.
Last year, Hyproc finally sold the 129,700-cbm sisterships Larbi Ben M’Hidi (built 1977) and Bachir Chihani (built 1979) to Turkish buyers. The two membrane-type steam turbine ships had been offered on the market several times but there seem to have been few takers.
A sistership to the Ramdane Abane, the Mourad Didouche (built 1980), appears to have been quietly scrapped too. Clarksons’ Shipping Intelligence Network lists the ship as demolished under the name Mourato.
Brokers reported the vessel was sold to Bangladesh buyers in February.
This time, Hyproc opted for a tender sale of the Ramdane Abane.
LNG ship demolition sales are proving elusive this year, despite growing concerns about the large numbers of impending redeliveries of older steam turbine vessels.
TradeWinds reported last month that two 38-year-old LNG carriers, the 128,000-cbm Fortune FSU and Lucky FSU (both built 1981), had been circulated for sale on behalf of Singapore’s LNG Easy.
But following this, brokers said there was talk that the membrane-type duo — originally ordered by MISC — was being withdrawn from sale so it could be offered in for project business.
