(With extra pictures) The world’s largest bilobe LNG tanks are nearing completion at China’s Sinopacific yard and will be installed in a series of four 27,500 cu m semi-refrigerated LNG/Ethylene carriers building for Denmark’s Evergas.
Each of the IMO Type C bilobe tanks has a capacity of 9686 m3. Two of the tanks in each vessel will be supplemented by a third conical Type C cargo tank and a smaller LNG fuel tank on the deck of the vessels. The tanks will be classed by Bureau Veritas.
Flexible Ships
Carlos Guerrero, manager gas carriers, Bureau Veritas, says: ‘These tanks are pushing at the frontier of small scale LNG transportation. They build on experience with ethylene transportation and can carry LPG or LNG at 5 bar pressure. That allows for the development of flexible ships which will meet the demands of the new LNG trades which are constantly emerging.’
Flat Main Deck
‘Our new ships have to work in the roughest seas in the world so we wanted to build them tough and without a lot of deck clutter and exposed systems,' states Ralph Juhl, Vice President at Evergas. 'These bilobe tanks enable us to have a flat main deck and they give us much better carrying capacity compared to cylindrical tanks in the same size ship.’
Evergas is having the ships built at Sinopacific to BV class for 2015 delivery to service the trade between Marcus Hook, Philadelphia and Rafnes in Norway.
