Keppel Offshore & Marine  has successfully delivered Russia’s first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering vessel. Designed and built by Keppel O&M, the 5,800m³ ice-class LNG bunkering vessel (LBV) Dmitry Mendeleev was delivered to Shturman Koshelev LLC with a perfect safety record.

The LBV is the fourth newbuild LBV by Keppel O&M and was built at its Keppel Nantong Shipyard in China to Keppel’s proprietary MTD 5800V LNG design. This delivery extends Keppel O&M’s track record in solutions for the gas value chain and is in line with Keppel’s Vision 2030, which includes seizing opportunities in LNG solutions.

Mr Tan Leong Peng, Managing Director (New Builds), Keppel O&M, said, “This vessel delivery is testament to Keppel O&M’s in-depth engineering and design capabilities. LNG is an important part of the clean energy transition and increasingly adopted as a marine fuel. By combining our expertise in LNG and in building ice-class vessels, we are able to provide reliable and more sustainable solutions for the Arctic region.”

The dual class LBV, the 12^th ice-class vessel delivered by Keppel O&M, was developed by its ship design and development arm, Keppel Marine & Deepwater Technology (KMDTech). The vessel is compliant to the Arc 4 and Ice Class 1A notations from the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and Bureau Veritas respectively, and its hull is optimised for independent ice navigation in medium first year summer ice of up to 90cm thickness. Measuring 100m in length and 19m in width, the vessel is also equipped with an integrated digital system which allows it to be managed by just one person from the navigation bridge.

Keppel O&M has developed a suite of solutions in both the demand and supply of LNG as fuel. It has delivered South East Asia’s first LBV, Singapore’s first LBV, and is currently building dual-fuel vessels such as containerships and dredgers. Keppel O&M is also promoting LNG as a marine fuel through FueLNG, its joint venture with Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd, which provides safe truck and vessel LNG bunkering solutions in Singapore.