Serving the Teesside Business Community | 43
GasChem Beluga, pictured on the River
Tees for its naming ceremony, is an eco-
friendly sea vessel that will carry shipments
of ethane gas from Houston in the US to
SABIC’s Olefins Cracker on Teesside.
Tees Business attends the
naming ceremony of a ship
that will play a vital role
in the future of Teesside’s
chemical industry
THIS SHIP’S A
A
record-breaking seafaring vessel that
will carry shipments of ethane gas
from Houston in the US to SABIC’s
iconic Olefins 6 plant at Wilton, near Redcar,
has been named GasChem Beluga in a
ceremony on the River Tees.
Operated by German shipping company
Hartmann Reederei and GasChem Services,
the eco-friendly sea vessel will carry
shipments from the US to Teesside under a
long-term time charter.
SABIC recently converted its Olefins plant
– known as the Cracker – during a major
investment to enable it to take ethane gas
alongside other feedstocks, to make it one of
the most flexible and competitive crackers in
Europe.
Along with the modifications to the Cracker
itself, the conversion project required the
building of two purpose-built ships – liquefied
ethylene gas (LEG) carriers - to transfer the
ethane from the US Gulf Coast to the UK.
The first of the new ships has been named
the “GasChem Beluga”, which made her
maiden voyage from Shanghai through the
Panama Canal to Houston in December to
mark the official start of the contract-hiring
period.
Built in China, the state-of-the-art ship
was designed and developed specifically for
SABIC by Hartmann Reederei, in cooperation
with engineering, consultants HB Hunte
Engineering to take advantage of the
emerging global ethane trade.
The ship’s innovative design focused
on building an “Eco Star” gas ship, with
hydrodynamic design, high fuel efficiency,
low emissions and the flexibility to use a
spectrum of fuels in the engines, including
clean fuels such as ethane and LNG.
The design of the cargo tank presents
another world innovation to allow an increase
in cargo capacity by nearly 30%, leading
to reduced shipping costs through higher
economies of scale.
The GasChem Beluga – which will be
joined by a sister vessel the GasChem
Orca in July - marks a new generation of
semi-refrigerated ethylene/ethane carriers,
designed for environmentally friendly
operations with minimum emissions at a
CRACKER
Frank Claus,
Odette Claus,
Captain Thomas
Kunze, chief
engineer Sven
Bjoern Rudolf
Wuensche and
Alfred Hartmann.
maximum of reliability and sea endurance.
The new ships, with a cargo capacity of
36,000m³, will greatly reduce emissions
of nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and soot
particles too by running engines on clean
gas.
The River Tees naming ceremony was held
to bring good luck to the new ship and those
who sail on it.
Odette Claus, the wife of Frank Claus,
SABIC’s global director of supply chain
liquids, officially named the vessel at a
ceremony in Teesport, which was attended
by representatives and customers of SABIC
and the Hartmann Group together with
members of the Tees shipping community.
Captain Alfred Hartmann, founder of the
Hartmann Group, said: “We are delighted
that SABIC has chosen Hartmann Reederei
as a partner in the development of this new
type of vessel.
“Whales like Beluga and Orca symbolize a
clean environment and therefore the name
of the ship reflects the ‘green’ concept and
technology of the vessels.”
Frank Claus added: “As a responsible global
company, SABIC is committed to providing
high-quality, competitively priced products to
its customers whilst doing all it reasonably
can to reduce the environmental impact of its
operations.
“Not only have we managed to lever
ethane as an advantaged Cracker feedstock,
we are proud to be one of the first chemical
companies in the world to use it as a clean
fuel for our highly efficient ships as well.
“Our UK site in Teesside is of strategic
importance to SABIC, as well as from a
global supply chain perspective.
“The flexible Cracker project will secure
the future of the Teesside site to provide
continued employment for the broader
community for the next few decades ahead.
“These innovative ships illustrate the
sustainable future that SABIC wants to help
to create.”