Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation says it has taken delivery of the “world’s first” dual-fuel VLCC — although its claim is disputed.
The 319,000-dwt Yuan Rui Yang (built 2022) classed by China Classification Society (CSS) was delivered by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corp on 28 February, according to a CCS announcement.
The vessel is the second such “first” to be announced. The news from CCS and Cosco came four days after a similar announcement of the naming of the Samsung Heavy Industries-built 300,000-dwt Eagle Valence (built 2022) by Singapore-based AET.
With two individually patented 3,500-cbm Type C tanks, the Yuan Rui Yang is supposed to run mainly on LNG and has a range of about 12,000 nautical miles burning gas alone, or 24,000 nautical miles using both LNG and diesel.
In the announcement, CCS said dual-fuel engine, generators and a boiler give the ship a design energy efficiency index (EEDI) of 39.3% lower than the baseline value.
Yang Guang, deputy general manager of CCS Dalian Branch, said the delivery is a significant milestone for CCS and China in developing vessels that cut CO2 emissions as part of China’s green energy drive.
“The Yuan Rui Yang has comprehensive energy-saving and performance indexes as a result of its LNG dual-fuel design, ship form optimisation and efficient hull-engine-propeller matching,” Yang said in the announcement. The Cosco VLCC is also the first to use corrosion-resistant steel tanks instead of protective coatings.
Yang points to a decade of research by CCS on LNG as a vessel fuel. In 2020, the Chinese class society also issued its first approval in principle for an ammonia and diesel dual-fuel VLCC and this year for a methanol and diesel dual-fuel VLCC.
Meanwhile, AET’s Eagle Valence seems indisputably the first dual-fuel ship to be chartered, although the language of the delivery and naming announcements make the claims difficult to compare.
As TradeWinds has previously reported, TotalEnergies has already taken the LNG/diesel dual-fuelled VLCC Eagle Valence on charter and is set to take one more from AET.
Representatives of the owners could not immediately be contacted. Shipping database IHS Markit does not list either ship as completed, but lists registered ownership of both the Eagle Valence and Yuan Rui Yang as passing to AET and Cosco subsidiaries in February.
Using LNG as a cleaner fossil fuel for carrying dirty fossil-fuel cargoes are seen by many as an important transitional step in the decarbonisation of shipping, and reference sources list some 17 LNG/diesel dual-fuel VLCCs are in the works including the Cosco and AET ships.
