Chinese owner
Dapeng Sun, the first LNG carrier to be built in China was delivered to its owner in Shanghai at the beginning of April 2008, with Kongsberg Maritime's K-Gauge Custody Transfer System (CTS) onboard. The vessel, which has a capacity of 147,000 cubic meters or 70,000 tons, will partly replace foreign flagged vessels currently sailing from Australia to Guangdong Province's Dapeng, China's first LNG receiving terminal.
The delivery of Dapeng Sun represents a major milestone in China's shipbuilding history. An LNG vessel requires the highest level of shipbuilding technology since LNG is such a difficult cargo to handle. Until now, very few shipyards, in Japan, the Republic of Korea and some European nations have been capable of building these special-purpose tankers. Dapeng Sun's builders, Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) Co, are now able to produce LNG tankers on a large scale with four more already on the way, putting China firmly on the LNG carrier map.
Technically advanced vessel
"Dapeng Sun is a technically advanced vessel, with the capacity to carry LNG equivalent to one month's use for Shanghai residents," comments Kongsberg Maritime's Project Manager in Shanghai, Siri Frøseth. "Co-operation between Kongsberg Maritime in Norway and in Shanghai has ensured that the design and installation of the first CTS in China was a successful operation, which is reflected in the positive feedback we received from the shipyard."
Custody transfer system
Installation of the sophisticated K-Gauge CTS commenced in May 2007 and was completed in October 2007 with the final Site Acceptance Test taking place in February 2008. The reliability and accuracy of the CTS is critical to both safety and the efficient trade of LNG around the world. K-Gauge automatically logs LNG tank levels, temperatures and pressure measurements, and calculates the tank volume during the loading-/unloading operation.
Loading & unloading reports
The system also generates a CTS loading-/unloading report; the official document used for purchasing the gas transported. The unique new K-Gauge flexible report system makes it easy to adapt the system for the changing requirements on the LNG spot market and/or changes in fixed long term Sale and Purchase Agreements, by making it possible to change both the report layout format and the CTS parameters.