A joint venture between Japanese shipowner MOL and Turkey’s Karpowership is working on a third LNG carrier-to-floating storage and regasification unit conversion.
TradeWinds understands that one or more affiliates of the partners, which are working together under the name KARMOL, has purchased the 127,363-cbm, Moss-type LNG carrier Northwest Seaeagle (built 1992).
December arrival
The vessel entered Singapore’s Sembcorp Marine shipyard in December and has now been renamed KARMOL LNGT Powership Anatolia.
A Karpowership spokeswoman said the Northwest Seaeagle is one of the candidates for conversion to an FSRU.
MOL and Karpowership announced their innovative tie-up last year.
The companies are converting first-generation LNG carriers into FSRUs, which can then supply gas to the existing powerships controlled by the Turkish owner as these specialised electricity generating vessels switched to running on natural gas.
KARMOL named its first buy as the 127,000-cbm Dwiputra (built 1994), which is now emblazoned with the name KARMOL LNGT Powership Africa.
The ship was originally earmarked to be sent to Mozambique at the end of 2019, where it would be used to supply regasified LNG to Karpowership’s 120MW powership Irem Sultan, which has been using heavy fuel oil to generate power.
But the Karpowership spokeswoman said the vessel is now scheduled to leave the shipyard in May or June.
Industry sources had suggested the FSRU may now be located to Senegal in West Africa where Karpowership's 253MW Karadeniz Powership Aysegul Sultan (built 2007) started operations in October in the capital of Dakar.
The Turkish company sidestepped questions as to where the ship would be located, saying it will be deployed according to its project timelines.
In August, TradeWinds reported that a second steam turbine-driven LNG carrier, the 127,452-cbm Northwest Shearwater (built 1991), had been acquired for the KARMOL venture.
This Moss-type vessel is understood to have been bought by Karpowership’s parent Karpower. Its conversion is due to be completed this year, Karpowership said.
What price?
Databases show the Northwest Shearwater has been renamed as KARMOL LNGT Powership Asia.
At the time of the ship’s purchase, sources rumoured that the partners also had their sights set on acquiring another vessel from the up-for-sale North West Shelf (NWS) project fleet, which was put on the market at the end of 2017.
It appears they moved on the Northwest Seaeagle shortly after this. No price details on the sale of either ship have emerged.
MOL has existing stakes in all of the vessels in the NWS LNG fleet.
The Japanese owner has been trying to grow its FSRU interests and is engaged in several projects outside the KARMOL joint venture.
The company’s first unit, the 263,000-cbm MOL FSRU Challenger (built 2017), is due to shift from Turkey to start a long-term contract with CLP Power Hong Kong this year.
MOL is also building the FSRU for Indonesia’s huge $1.8bn Jawa-1 independent power project at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.
In addition, the shipowner is working with Turkish LNG energy company Botas on its FSRU newbuilding at Hyundai Heavy Industries and has taken a stake in Swan Energy’s FSRU for India.
