South Korea’s Sinokor Merchant Marine has shed one of the world’s oldest LNG carriers, selling a 45-year-old vessel for recycling.
Brokers said the 126,400-cbm steam turbine-driven Coral Energy (built 1979) has been sold on an “as is” basis at Labuan in east Malaysia.
The 30,194-ldt, Moss-type vessel, formerly the LNG Virgo, has specialised materials on board. One source detailed the ship as containing 3,786 tonnes of aluminium.
The Coral Energy is the third LNG carrier to be scrapped in 2024, alongside the 19,474-cbm Surya Aki (built 1996) and the 127,125-cbm YK Sovereign (built 1994).
Other steam turbine vessels are being circulated for sale with the expectation that one or more of the elderly ships will be scrapped as emissions regulations tighten.
They are of significantly smaller capacities than today’s 174,000-cbm two-stroke vessels, which rank as the workhorses of the LNG fleet.
By contrast, the steamers are stacking up as inefficient with high emissions.
There are at least two modern LNG carriers in lay-up, which may also be candidates for scrap sales, due to technical issues with their cargo containment systems.
Prolonged lay-up
The Coral Energy has been laid up, initially in the Philippines and later in Labuan, since December 2013. It is believed that Sinokor never reactivated the ship for trading since buying it seven years ago.
Along with three of its original sister vessels, it ranked in the top four oldest LNG carriers in the world fleet, all of which are laid up. Sinokor controls two of the remaining trio.
Sinokor bought the Coral Energy, then the LNG Virgo, in 2017 along with two sister ships — the LNG Gemini and LNG Leo (both built 1978) and since renamed the Gulf Energy and Bering Energy, respectively — from US aerospace and defence multinational General Dynamics Corp.
All three vessels were Jones Act-certified and at one point there was the expectation in the market that they would make good conversion candidates.
The trio was part of the original eight-ship Burmah Gas Transport fleet — sometimes known as the “Zodiac LNG carriers”.
