DSME Wins Order for 2 LNG Facilities from Russia

DSME president Lee Sung-keun (center) and two other executives pose for a photo after signing an agreement on the construction of LNG-barges via a teleconference at DSME’s Seoul office on June 5.

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) announced on June 8 that it has won an order for two 360,000-square-meter LNG-barges from a Russian client for about 901.3 billion won.

An LNG-barge is a floating LNG terminal in the sea. It is a facility that receives and stores LNG from icebreaking LNG carriers at sea and unloads it onto regular LNG carriers. The LNG-barges to be manufactured by DSME will be installed in the Murmansk and Kamchatka areas in Russia to serve as intermediate stops.

The facility is expected to allow LNG produced in the Arctic Ocean to be supplied to Europe and Asia much faster while significantly lowering operating costs of LNG carriers, DSME said.

These vessels will depart for the installation area by the end of 2022. The deal includes two optional ships, so DSME is expecting to land additional orders.

DSME said that under the deal, it will produce all of the LNG-related facilities. In particular, DSME built icebreaking LNG carriers, LNG-floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) and LNG-floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) ahead of others and was taking the lead in developing technology for them, DSME emphasized.

In 2020, DSME won six orders worth about US$1.43 billion, includinge two LNG-barges, one LNG-FSRU, two shuttle tankers and one VLCC.