NYK of Japan has ordered six LNG carrier vessels from Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, in what is believed to be the largest LNG carrier order placed with a Chinese builder.
At the same time, a long term charter agreement for the six ships was signed with CNOOC Gas and Power Singapore Trading & Marketing. This is NYK’s first long-term time-charter contract for LNG carriers with CNOOC. The six vessels are scheduled to be delivered between 2026 and 2027 and will be mainly engaged in LNG transportation to China.
The vessels will be 299m in length, with a tank capacity of 174,000m3. They will be jointly managed by NYK and a subsidiary of China Merchants Energy Shipping. Main engines will be WinGD X-DF2.1 iCER, a next-generation dual-fuel engine that can operate on fuel oil or boil off gas from the cargo tanks. The GTT NO96 Super+ membrane-type tanks will make use of advanced insulating materials to reduce the boil-off rate (percentage of gas volume that vaporises during navigation).
