Mitsubishi Bags Fourth LPG Carrier Order from Astomos
Tokyo-based Astomos Energy Corp has placed an order today with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for a very large liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carrier.
The 83,000 cu m vessel marks their fourth such order with MHI since 2013, a company that also happens to be a 49 percent shareholder in Astomos Energy. Construction, as with the three previously ordered vessels, will be carried out at MHI's Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works.
The carrier will provide the world's highest level of energy-saving performance, flexibility to accommodate major LPG terminals around the globe, and specifications suited to passage through the newly expanding Panama Canal.
MHI said in a separate statement that the 51,100-dwt very large gas carrier (VLGC) will measure 230 m in overall length, 36.6 m in width, and 11.1 m in draught.
The VLGC will be delivered by the second quarter of 2017, adding to the 21 VLGCs that Astomos Energy operates, six of which are owned and the others time-chartered. This new vessel, upon delivery in 2017 from MHI’s Nagasaki Shipyard & Machinery Works, will replace an existing vessel that was built in the first half of the 1990s, according to MHI.
"The adoption of MHI's unique hull design and other features will provide the carrier with superlative fuel efficiency and outstanding adaptability to the diverse connecting conditions of the world's LPG terminals. The ship will also be equipped with the industry's most advanced systems, including mooring arrangement, to enable passage through the newly expanding Panama Canal, which is expected to become operable early in 2016," MHI said.
Astomos Energy targets in its new medium-term business plan beginning fiscal year 2015 to expand its LPG transport structure and increase gross LPG handling volume from the current 10 million tons per year (mtpy) to more than 12 mtpy by 2017.