Low-emission DP shuttle tankers unveiled
Sea trials of one of AET's new shuttle tankers (Source: AET)
Two LNG-powered, twin-skeg shuttle tankers with dynamic positioning have been named in a ceremony at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. The 123,100dwt sister ships, Eagle Blane and Eagle Balder, will be owned and operated by AET, the petroleum logistics subsidiary of MISC Berhad, and long-term chartered to Norwegian state energy firm Equinor.
Operating primarily on LNG, the shuttle tankers will also capture all the volatile organic compounds that escape to air during the handling and transport of crude oil cargoes. These VOCs will then be used as a supplementary fuel.
The result is an emissions profile that already meets the IMO’s 2030 carbon reduction target of a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions compared with 2008 levels, the companies claim. The shuttle tankers will emit 40 to 48% less carbon than equivalent vessels built in 2008, whilst also emitting 85% less SOx, 98% less NOx, 98% less particulate matter and 93% less black carbon particulates than DP shuttle tankers burning conventional fuel.
The vessels will be deployed at oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, the Norwegian Sea, the southern Barents Sea, and the UK Continental Shelf.
