LNG vessel to be laid up in Norway as spot market turns ugly

[Mats]

Suez Energy International has decided to put the 87,000-cbm LNG carrier "Hoegh Galleon" (built 1974) into lay up.

The company has the ship on charter from Leif Hoegh & Co of Norway until 2018. The vessel will be laid up in Holmestrand, some 60 kilometers south of Oslo, where it will arrive in the middle of October. Holmestrand was used for the lay up of large oil tankers in the 1970s and 1980s.

By way of background, a number of large LNG projects are being developed. There is a great need for new vessels tailormade for the relevant projects and owners like Bergesen, Teekay and H

[Matt Ruscher]

interesting story, her sister(correct me if im wrong) the Norman Lady has been and will be in lay up in Gibraltar aswell, i dont know if its due to a surplus of ships or if it is because they have a much lower capacity compared to the newer builds.

[Tomas Pinas]

My own backyard is once again going to host laid up ships, Mats ofcourse I will be taking photos, give me a call when youre heading down here.

The word in todays paper is that the ship is still under contract and will be taking on a new contract at the Norwegian Snow White field up in the north of norway (New gas field).

The paper also tells that more ships are on the way to Holmestrand, I will try to find some old images from the eighties when we had a full house of supertankers for years down here.

Regards
Tomas

[Mats]

Here are a few pictures of VLCCs laid up in Norway in the early 1980s:

These are from Holmestrand:
http://supertankers.topcities.com/part-1/id364.htm
http://supertankers.topcities.com/part-1/id325.htm

These are from Aalesund in north-western Norway:
http://visseraa.topcities.com/Inter/id303.htm
http://visseraa.topcities.com/Inter/id330.htm

On this page, there is one from Moss, Norway:
http://supertankers.topcities.com/part-1/id335.htm

Best regards
Mats
Oslo

[Christian Br]

The Galleon is, as you said, still under contract with Suez (former Tractabel). The lay up will probably not be for more than 6-12 months. After that, more terminals will be finished and she will hopefully be back in business. When she is going to Holmestrand, the crew will disembark and only one chief engineer and one captein/chief officer will be onboard for "maintenance" purposes. The reason for choosing Holmestrand as place for the lay up is because it is the cheapest place! It is cheaper to sail her from Trinidad (where she is right now) and to Norway, than to keep her down there, or Bahamas which was another option.
As Kruscher mentioned, her sister Norman Lady is idle at Gibraltar. But I dont think she will be laid up like the Galleon. She had one small cargo just a couple of months ago. Lets hope they both will be back in business in late 2006 and 2007. As for the Snow White field, I doubt the Galleon will be put into that trade. H

[Christian Br]

Pilot is ordered for H

[JNB]

Thanks for sharing this information which is very interesting for those following LNG shipping. While the lay up of the H

[Ceefex]

Please post more pictures of LNG vessels here!  Mats, if you can get the picture of Hoegh Galleon in Holmestrand when she gets there in mid October, kindly post it up! I personally believe that the LNG market is still alive and kicking!

[Christian Br]

Three pictures of Galleon posted some days ago, taken outside Point Fortin, Trinidad.

Christian

[grigonik]

Re ships for Snohvit - Arctic Princess has been subchartered by Statoil, the Charterer, to BG Group as the LNG plant is being delayed until 2007 or even 2008. Would be interesting to see what happens to the Lady after her delivery

Regards
grigonik

[Christian Br]

As far as H

[Milind Balaji]

Christian,

Thanks for sharing a lot of useful info about the 2 Hoegh vessels. From your pictures and posts you have given us a nice insight into these popular vessels and I was wondering if you are presently sailing on either the Galleon or the great ' lady'. If not what are your future plans regarding hoegh? Will you be assigned to any of their PCC's or just their tankers?

Thanks!

Milind

[Christian Br]

Milind!

I have not been on Galleon, and I doubt that I will get there in the near future... I have been two contracts on Norman Lady and two contracts on Matthew.  On monday I leave for South-Corea to join H

[Milind Balaji]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for the reply. Looks like Gandria is going to be your home for a while
What is Gandria's run like? South Korea to Caribbean?
Your picture on the Bridge of Norman lady was fantastic and we are looking forward to some more LNG vessel pictures from you, especially since it is quite rare to have one of our community on an LNG vessel! Also, it would be great if you could take some pictures of the accomodation/ engine room etc after your voyage.If you are ever in the USA do not hesitate to contact me.
Take care and safe voyage!

best,
Milind

[Christian Br]

Hello again Milind!

I have a lot of pictures from inside superstructures and engine rooms of both Norman Lady and Matthew, but not posted them yet. I will do something about that when I come back from this trip.
Gandria runs between Pyeong Taek in South Korea and Indonesia. Will try to take a lot of pictues!
If I ever come to the States I will certaintly make contact! But I dont know when, unfortunately...!  :-)

Brgds
Christian B.