EMEA News
UASC to Build LNG Box Ship Bunkering Station in Middle East
United Arab Shipping Co. (UASC) will build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) bunkering station in the Middle East to serve the huge new containerships it has ordered, industry news site SeaTrade Global reports.
The shipping company plans to refuel the ships twice on their Asia-Europe voyages, and it is seeking options to bunker in port or with ship-to-ship transfers, Jost Bergmann, business director of containerships for DNV GL, which is classing the ships, told a seminar in Singapore.
"They basically don't want to have to come into port," he said.
The Middle East is around the mid-point of the Asia-Europe trade, and UASC is partly owned by Qatar, which is a major producer of LNG.
UASC will begin taking deliveries of the containerships, five 18,000 twenty-foot equivalent vessels and five 14,000 TEU ships, at the end of 2014.
The ships, being built by Hyundai Heavy Industries, will initially operate on heavy fuel oil but are designed for quick retrofit to LNG bunkers.
UASC said in December that the LNG tanks and fuel supply systems will be able to be installed in "a matter of weeks" once LNG infrastructure is in place.
