ONE of Woodside Energy’s newest LNG carriers has been used by builder Hanwha Ocean in what is clamied to be a world-first transhipment trial.
The 174,000 cu m Woodside Barrumbarra (‘barramundi’) and Woodside Jirrubakura (‘crayfish’), officially named at the Hanwha Ocean shipyard at Goeje, South Korea last month and taken on charter from Greece’s GasLog [Livanos], have been built primarily to service Woodside’s Scarborough LNG project.
Hanwha Ocean now says it has completed what it claims as the world’s first ship-to-ship transfer of liquefied natural gas between two vessels that were both on sea trials, Woodside Jirrubakura and near sister Maran Gas Syros.
The shipbuilder says the method reduces environmental impact and helps avoid schedule delays caused by congestion at LNG terminals: In conventional gas trials, a newly-built LNG carrier loads small volumes from a terminal to cool down tanks and test systems, then returns the remaining gas to shore.
According to Hanwha Ocean, the new approach allows that trial LNG to be transferred directly to another trial vessel at sea, improving turnaround time and operational flexibility.
“This breakthrough not only reduces environmental impact but also resolves the risk of schedule delays caused by terminal congestion,” the company said.
“Following our earlier success with the world’s first Ship-to-Ship LNG bunkering operation within a shipyard, this achievement once again proves Hanwha Ocean’s differentiated expertise in gas trial technologies.”
Hanwha Ocean is the former Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. And has previously built seven LNG carriers for Woodside employment.