Chinese Floating Islands Could Become New Bunkering Locations

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday April 22, 2015

Large "floating islands" proposed by a collaboration of two Chinese companies could be used for a host of purposes, including bunkering, Popular Science reports.

The collaboration, which is understood to be between construction company Jidong Development Group (JDG) and Hainan Hai Industrial Company, is proposing to build a range of large floating islands of up to 900 metres (m) by 120m.

Assuming a hull draft of 16m, full displacement of the 900m by 120m model could be 1.5 million tons at full load.

The first island is said to be planned as a deep sea support location in the South China Sea.

Among the possible uses foreseen for the technology are bunkering, military, tourism, shipping, power generation, and offshore fossil fuel extraction.

According to the report, a People's Liberation Army officer was one of the speakers at a JDG-led press conference this month.

Large floating structures such as the Catamaran-hulled Shell Prelude, are currently used in the offshore oil and gas industry.

The South Korean-built Prelude, which displaces 600,000 tons at full load, is used as a base to extract undersea gas and liquefy it ready for off-loading to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers.

Last week, China and Singapore were named as the world's largest bunker markets.