Hamworthy has supplied the first example of its onboard LNG regasification plant, which is the first of four major LNG vessel installations.
Hamworthy delivered an onboard vaporiser system in July to be installed on the 145,000m3 LNG shuttle regasification vessel (SRV) Suez Neptune. SRVs are designed to transport and store LNG, and then vaporise it into natural gas that can be sent ashore by subsea pipeline. Suez Neptune was launched in September and is the first of two SRVs under construction at Samsung in South Korea (hull Nos 1688 & 1689) for Höegh LNG to serve the Neptune terminal in Boston, Massachusetts. Gas trials are scheduled for May/June 2009 and Suez Neptune will be in operation around September 2009.
Hamworthy is supplying three regasification skids per ship. Each shipset will have a regasification capacity of 210 tonnes/hr of LNG with a send-out pressure of 115 bar.
“This project combines the very latest in gas technology with environmental and safety regulations to meet the ever increasing demand for natural gas from the US market,” said Dag Karsten, Hamworthy’s project manager for LNG regasification. “There is considerable interest in further offshore LNG terminal services being established, which will require LNG SRVs.”
Suez Neptune is one of four LNG regasification projects Hamworthy is – or will be – working on.
Hamworthy’s second project comprises plant for a 138,000m3 LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), Golar Winter. This vessel will be chartered by Petrobas in an LNG import project located in Guanabara Bay, Brazil, where gas will be sent from the vessel to an onshore gas grid. Gas trials will take place in April 2009 for operation in July/August 2009.
In October 2009 gas trials will be taking place on the second Neptune SRV, Suez Cape Ann (hull No 1689), which will have equipment installed at Samsung in February 2009 for operation in Boston in January 2010.
The fourth project will be on the FSRU Golar Freeze for Dubai Supply Authority (DUSUP) and Shell in Dubai, for which Hamworthy is delivering the skids in September 2009. A team of 23 people have been working on this project. “There have been a lot of challenges related to design, both process and mechanical, due to lack of space onboard the vessel,” Mr Karsten said. “But everybody involved has made a tremendous effort to enable us to succeed, and this contribution has further established our position in the gas market”.
