Japan's MOL Names Largest FSRU
Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) held September 28 a naming ceremony for the MOL FSRU Challenger.
It is the world's largest floating regasification and storage unit and also the first FSRU for MOL to independently build, own and operate.
The ceremony was held at the Okpo shipyard of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) in South Korea.
The ship will provide storage and regasification services to a project in Turkey after delivery in October, said MOL, with operation to start by end-2017. It did not give the name of the Turkish project that the ship will serve. Turkey's first FSRU project – and third LNG import terminal – launched in late 2016.
MOL FSRU Challenger has LNG storage capacity of 263,000m3 and has LNG re-shipment, re-export and gas transfer capabilities.
MOL said it is "moving boldly" into the LNG supply business in Asia and central/South America where it expects demand for gas to rise. The FSRU was originally to have served the Uruguayan gas import project Gas Sayago LNG, a joint venture between Uruguay's state oil company Ancap and state power company UTE, but that project stalled.
MOL FSRU Challenger on the open seas (Photo credit: Mitsui OSK Lines)
Mark Smedley