LNG Tanker En Route to Malta Leaves Singapore
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
The LNG tanker Armada LNG Mediterrana – or floating storage unit that will be permanently berthed at Marsaxlokk has finally left Singapore harbour, reports Malta Independent.
The ship is currently making 9 knots and is heading towards the port of Galle in Sri Lanka, where it is expected to arrive on 18 September. Its arrival date in Malta is not yet known.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and Minister-without-portfolio Konrad Mizzi travelled to Singapore last month to dispatch the ship but the vessel’s departure was delayed for unknown reasons.
The tanker is an essential part of the new gas-fired power station, as it will supply LNG to the onshore regassificator. This will, in turn, feed gas to the new power station being built by Electrogas and the BWSC plant that is being converted by its Chinese owners to work on gas.
This is the first part of 5,900km journey across the Arabian Sea, before travelling up the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to enter the Mediterranean before heading west to Malta.
The tanker – formerly the Wakaba Maru, registered in Nassau – was built in 1985 and is 283m long with an extreme breadth of 44.8m.
It has a gross tonnage of 125,000 tonnes and is designated as a Tanker – Hazard A (Major) vessel type.