The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers SK Serenity and SK Spica are still moored off Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang Province. In order to reduce the burden of technology deployment fees on foreign companies, the two ships will adopt Korea’s own LNG cargo tank “KC-1” jointly developed by Korea Gas Corporation and domestic shipbuilding and shipbuilding companies The LNG tanker and built having been out of service for six years. When it left the port, a defect called “cold spot” (freezing phenomenon) occurred, and a number of ..
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The liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers SK Serenity and SK Spica are still moored off Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang Province. In order to reduce the burden of technology deployment fees on foreign companies, the two ships will adopt Korea’s own LNG cargo tank “KC-1” jointly developed by Korea Gas Corporation and domestic shipbuilding and shipbuilding companies The LNG tanker and built having been out of service for six years. After leaving port, a defect called “cold spot” (freezing phenomenon) occurred, and although repairs were performed several times, the problem could not be solved, leading to a long-running legal case over its design, manufacture and ‘to operation.
An LNG cargo tank is a facility that compresses and liquefies gaseous natural gas at a very low temperature of -162 degrees Celsius to approximately 1/600 of the original size, then stores and transports it. On May 10, an LNG tanker with the second generation “KC-2” based on the design of the KC-1 began to operate, but the industry said, “The shortcomings of the first generation and the legal battle have been resolved. Until for it to be done, there is no possibility that the KC-2 will become popular.” There was even the opinion that it would only operate on warm routes without a fundamental solution to the problem. Only the confidence of the market in South Korea’s shipbuilding technology will decline.”
■ Conditional navigation plan on a “warm sea route”
The development of the Korean domestic LNG tank “KC-1” is about 10 billion won (about 1.05 billion yen) for each LNG tanker built by a Korean shipbuilding company as a technology use fee to the French company GTT. It was launched in 2004 as a national policy task to solve the problem of dependence on technology that has to be paid for. South Korea, which built more than 120 LNG tankers last year, paid about 1.7 trillion won in technology usage fees to GTT, which has important cargo tank technology. The more prosperous the shipbuilding industry, the higher the technology usage fee.
In order to overcome these problems, the National Gas Corporation and three domestic shipbuilding companies (Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) participated in a national project with the aim of producing domestic LNG cargo tank technology in the home. Succeeded in joint development of a tank. After that, Samsung Heavy Industries started building LNG tankers that applied the technology, and in early 2018 completed two vessels, SK Serenity and SK Spica. However, from the time of the first operation, cold spots occurred where the hull freezes due to the ultra-low temperature of the cargo tank, and the defect persisted despite four repairs. If cold spots continue to develop in the metal of a ship, in the worst case, the hull can crack. In the end, since 2019, the carrier, Korea Gas Corporation, the ship’s operator, SK Shipping, and the ship’s builder, Samsung Heavy Industries, have claimed that there were flaws in the design, ”“defects in construction,” and “`failing to fulfill the agreement.” he rushed into battle. All three companies suffered losses of over 100 billion won and are still increasing.
■ “We need a long-term perspective like launching rockets”
Faults were found during the test operation earlier this year after four repairs, and the gas corporation and others are said to be unable to further improve performance. For this reason, we decided that conditional operation would be possible on routes to the Middle East, where the water temperature is 6 degrees or higher and the climate is warm, and asked SK Shipping to operate the vessel.
However, experts note that “conditional operations are inferior to biho measures.” A professor who researches cargo tank technology said, “Following a temporary response, ‘operating with water temperature conditions’ is unacceptable. I wonder which shipping company will order an LNG tanker that uses imperfect technology.” Another shipbuilding specialist professor also pointed out, “It’s like advertising ‘this car can’t run on the highway’ when you sell a new car.”
There is also an opinion that the government should arbitrate, taking into account the purpose of the national project for the production of domestic technology. A shipbuilding industry official said, “GT should acknowledge the trial and error that went into trying to quickly and easily catch up with the technology that GT has amassed over the past 40 years through hundreds of tests and errors, and find a compromise. ““If the current lawsuits continue, blaming others, the technology we’ve worked so hard for will never be used,” he said. The President of Mokpo University, Sung Ha-cheol (Professor of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering), who has been researching the technology for the domestic production of cargo tanks, said, “Korea has developed rocket technology, and even if the test launch fails, we find improvements and invest constantly and achieve results. As we have announced, we must not only take responsibility for the defects of the KC-1 , but we must gather opinions to solve the problem and continue to invest.”
Reporter Lee Jong-gu
Chosun Ilbo Japanese version / Chosun Ilbo
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