A 17-year-old LNG carrier has been put back into the trading fleet by Turkey’s Karpowership and has delivered a first shipment to Brazil.
LNG market sources said the 154,472-cbm Karadeniz LNGT Powership Anatolia (ex-LNG Unity, built 2006) delivered a shipment to the 127,452-cbm FSRU KARMOL LNGT Powership Asia (built 1991) which has been anchored in Sepetiba Bay, Brazil since May 2022.
Kpler data shows the Karpowership vessel arrived at the FSRU on 22 December laden with a cargo loaded at Huelva in Spain.
It has since returned and is shown idling in the Mediterranean.
Originally built as the Provalys, the LNG carrier came to TotalEnergies in 2018 when the French major bought its compatriot utility Engie’s upstream assets.
The vessel is one of just three diesel-electric ships were built with GTT’s CS1 cargo containment system at France’s Chantiers de l’Atlantique yard in Saint-Nazaire.
But serious debonding issues occurred on the tank systems, resulting in long-running repairs and the discontinuation of CS1.
TotalEnergies undertook some extensive repairs on the ship which was returned to trading in 2020.
It was bought by Karpowership in late 2021. No price emerged but brokers estimated the vessel to be worth around $40m at the time.
Confirming the sale to TradeWinds a year ago, Karpowership said the vessel “has the potential” to be converted into an FSRU and also offers the option of being employed as an interim LNG carrier for its existing LNG to power projects.
The vessel went into one of Karpowership’s yards in 2022 where the company an “engineering and optimisation process” was being carried out on the vessel.
It is unclear if all the ship’s tanks are operational.
In November this publication reported that the Brazil-based FSRU, which is controlled by Karpowership and Mitsui OSK Lines joint venture KARMOL, had took delivery of its first cargo from the 28,689-cbm small-scale LNG carrier CNTIC Vpower Global (built 2020) in October.
The two shipments are significant in that they are the first commercial LNG volumes taken on by a KARMOL FSRU to feed gas to associated powerships.
In Brazil the FSRU has been positioned to supply four powership designed to deliver a combined capacity of 560MW.
High LNG prices in 2022 have slowed the set up of KARMOL’s projects.
But Karpowership watchers said that with lower prices now prevailing they expect KARMOL’s first deployed FSRU, the 125,000-cbm KARMOL LNGT Powership Africa (ex-Dwiputra, built 1994) which arrived off Dakar in Senagal, West Africa in June 2021, to start commissioning shortly.
KARMOL is also continuing to convert a third LNG carrier, the 127,000-cbm LNG Vesta (built 1994), into an FSRU in Singapore which is expected to deliver this year.
In January Karpowership signed an agreement with the Energy Company of Ukraine over the possible use of floating power vessels to help provide electricity to supply the nation’s power needs.