2 months ahead of schedule! China's first large Mark III Flex membrane LNG carrier delivered

China's first large-scale Mark III Flex membrane LNG carrier was named “AL SHELILA” and delivered in a ceremony held at Jiangnan Shipyard on November 25, 2024. Guests from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Wanhua Chemical, Shanghai government, CSSC, DNV, GTT, equipment suppliers, ship brokerage companies, and news media all attended.
Jiangnan Shipyard collected with CSTC signed contracts with ADNOC Logistics & Services to build six 175,000 cubic meter LNG carriers. Jiangnan Shipyard became the first shipyard in China to undertake the large MARK III Flex membrane LNG carriers. This order is also China's first in large LNG carriers for leading oil and gas companies and it’s groundbreaking for Chinese shipyards to directly cooperate with international oil and gas companies in the large LNG construction field.
This ship type, LNG JUMBO, is the first of its kind independently developed and designed by Jiangnan Shipyard in accordance with the latest LNG carrier’s design featuring mainstream, reliable, environmentally friendly characteristics and achieving international advanced level. Higher fatigue requirements of the North Atlantic 40-year and DNV PLUS notation, ensuring safety and reliability. Equipped with Jiangnan’s intelligent ship system (JNIS) developed by Jiangnan, ensuring higher energy efficiency. Besides, the living cabin has achieved the vibration standard of the passenger ship with excellent comfortability. Besides, the quality of cargo containment system has been unanimously praised by the shipowner, ship inspection and GTT：the C2 and C3 values of the epoxy thickness of the insulation board accounted for more than 85%；the flatness of the insulation board is less than 0.5mm, smaller than the 1.5mm step difference required by GTT; the SBTT value is better than international mainstream levels.
Jiangnan Shipbuilding has learned the technology of LNG membrane cargo containment system since 1994 and participated in the bidding for China's first large-scale LNG carrier newbuilding project in 2002, which was the only shipyard to submit the technical solution of MARK III membrane LNG carrier at that time. Since the year 2002 when Jiangnan participated in the bidding for the MARK III LNG carrier for the first time, Jiangnan began to develop MARK III LNG carrier. Especially since relocation in Changxing Island in 2008, the construction facilities have been largely expanded in Jiangnan’s new site and the construction of large LNG carriers will no longer be restricted by the key facilities such as docks and cranes. The R&D of the MARK III LNG carrier has always been the first priority and undertaken as a strategic product in Jiangnan. Based on the construction ability of full-spectrum liquefied gas carriers and the accumulated experience of container vessels’ MARK III LNG fuel tanks and medium-sized MARK III LNG carrier (80K CBM), combined with the technical characteristics of membrane LNG carriers, Jiangnan continued to invest in technical solutions, product supply chain, construction technologies, construction workmanship, and management improvement. In the end, with the support of advanced technology and construction method innovation such as low-stress construction and lean production of cargo containment system, the actual construction period of the first ship from start to delivery was only 19 months, which was 2 months ahead of schedule.
Through the development and successful delivery of China's first large Mark III Flex membrane LNG ship, Jiangnan Shipyard has established a complete Mark III membrane LNG ship technology, construction method, quality, management and HSE system, and cultivated a project team with superb skills, courage and pursuit of excellence, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent ship construction and delivery and new ship orders and largely improving the competition ability of Jiangnan in LNG shipping . So far, Jiangnan Shipyard has achieved a breakthrough in the "0" performance of large LNG ship delivery, and a new force has been added to the "Made in China" field of LNG ship design and construction!