Page 49: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2, 2005)
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March 2005 49 ) L Q D Q F L D O 0 D Q D J H P H Q W ( Y H Q W K H E H V W F D Q E H E H W W H U 7 K H 8 O W L P D W H & R P S X W L Q J & R Q F H S W I R U W K H 6 K L S S L Q J , Q G X V W U \ 3 R Z H U & R Q W U R O \ R X U I X W X U H 2 V O R 1 H Z < R U N 6 L Q J D S R U H ' X E D L 6 \ G Q H \ L Q I R # V K L S Q H W Q R Z Z Z V K L S Q H W Q R
Circle 269 on Reader Service Card again by the end of the quarter closing just below WS 380.
Newbuilding & Secondhand Sales
There were a few large Aframax sales this quarter. The company Ming
Wah was sold by China Merchants Holdings to associate company China
Merchants Energy Transport Investment for $167M, included in the sale are 7 aframaxes ranging from 89,000 - 106,000 Dwt. Teekay sold 8
Aframaxes to Dynacom for $200M enbloc all 100,000 Dwt and about 14 years old. Genel Denizilik sold the 2003 built Avor and Sinova (113,000
Dwt) to Hansa Truehand for $52M each enbloc, the sale includes a timecharter until 2006 for $17,500/day. Shell sold the 1985 built Solaris and Spectrum (105,000 Dwt) to Barclay Shipping for $17.75M each enbloc. Cido Shipping has entered into the Aframax market by ordering their first three Aframax tankers (115,000 Dwt) from Sasebo Heavy
Industries. The ships are scheduled to deliver in 2007 and have already been chartered to Nippon Yusen Kaisha for 8 years. Novoship has ordered four 115,000 Dwt ice-class tankers from Samsung Shipyard for $59M each, scheduled to deliver between 2007 and 2008.
Fleet Additions & Deletions
Last year was a record breaking year for the Aframax tanker market in terms of additions and deletions, this year came in a close second. This year was the second largest scrapping year with 29 vessels, only 14 were expected based on the EU accelerated phase-out schedule. During the last quarter only two vessels were sent for scrap. The 1975 built
Lokamanya Tilak (89,407 Dwt) was sold for $388/ldt to India, the 1973 built Polar Texas (91,393 Dwt) was also reportedly sold. Down signifi- cantly from last years number of deliveries, 2004 ended with 55 ships delivered. There were 22 vessels delivered the first quarter, 11 the sec- ond quarter, 10 the third quarter, and 12 the fourth quarter. The HS
Norma and HS Tosca (115,000 Dwt), both bought from Metrostar by
Hansa Treuhand, were delivered and immediately entered into the
Aframax International Pool. AP Moeller took delivery of the Maersk
Pristine (109,637 Dwt), the first of 5 expected over the next year. The
Minerva Iris (103,124 Dwt) was delivered to Minerva Marine, the sev- enth Minerva Aframax delivered this year. The trading inventory ended the year at 675 vessels.
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With contracts pending for an entirely new generation of very large LNG carriers of 200,000 cu. m. and above, ABS is providing guidance to owners and shipyards on a range of issues that will affect the selection of the propulsion system for these advanced ves- sels. "The traditional application of gas fired, steam turbines is no longer the most appro- priate choice for the main propulsion plant on the very large LNG ships," says Hoseong
Lee, Staff Consultant, ABS Technology. "Direct drive, slow speed diesel plants, cou- pled with an on-board liquefaction plant to handle the cargo boil off, appear to offer the greatest operational efficiencies for these new designs. It is more economical to use marine bunker fuels to power the vessel and to re-liquefy the boil-off gas, returning it to the cargo tanks."
But a diesel plant also raises other issues that need to be addressed, particularly the problem of vibration. ABS researchers are conducting the most detailed investigation into the effects of diesel engine vibration on membrane systems that has yet been under- taken. "The critical issue is understanding the effect of resonance," says Lee. "With an
LNG carrier it is necessary to understand the interaction between the structural resonance that is excited by the diesel engine and the separate resonance that is created within the membrane containment system interacting with LNG." Other machinery arrangements that are being considered by owners ordering
LNG carriers include dual fuel diesel engines; diesel engine or gas turbine driven generators with one propulsion shafting sys- tem and a liquefaction plant; diesel engine or gas turbine driven generators with two propulsion shafting systems and a liquefac- tion plant; and diesel engine or gas turbine driven generators with two azimuth thrusters and a liquefaction plant. In all of these cases a gas combustion unit (GCU) could replace the liquefaction plant.
For owners considering a dual fuel instal- lation that would use both gas boil-off and ordinary bunkers, ABS has issued a Guide for Design and Installation of Dual Fuel
Engines which provides technical guidance for various machinery arrangements.
According to ABS Europe Director of
Technology Development Mumtaz
Mahmood, dual fuel engines have been installed in both offshore and onshore power plant applications for many years. In the case of onshore installations, natural gas is uti- lized and for offshore installations generally process gas is used as fuel for power genera- tion. Dual fuel engines proposed for LNG vessels are developed upon these same prin- ciples. However, in the case of LNG carriers, a dual fuel diesel-electric system uses forced boil- off gas from the cargo tanks as the pri- mary fuel, forced boil off gas as additional fuel, and marine diesel oil as back-up fuel.
The arrangement can also be adapted to cur- rent LNG carrier designs. Furthermore, ship- builders and engine designers point out that a gas-electric propulsion plant is more com- pact than the traditional steam turbine plant used for LNG carriers, increasing cargo capacity within the same dimensioned hull.
The IMO Gas Carrier Code requires two means of utilizing boil-off gas on all LNG carriers. Conventional systems use the main boilers for generating steam for propulsion.
When this cannot be used, excess steam is redirected to the condensers. Similar arrangements are required for the diesel propulsion systems. Current industry pro- posals for the alternative means of boil-off gas utilization are a liquefaction plant or a
GCU. Each of these alternatives is consid- ered to be an acceptable means by ABS and approval procedures are being developed in cooperation with the industry.
Circle 18 on Reader Service Card
ABS Guidance on Propulsion for Very Large LNG Carriers
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