DSME delivers 2 shuttle tankers to Norwegian shipper

SEOUL, Sept. 5 (Yonhap) -- South Korean shipyard Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. (DSME) said Monday it has delivered two shuttle oil tankers to a Norwegian shipping company within the term of the contract.

Two years ago, DSME signed a deal with Norwegian shipper Knutsen to build the 124,000-ton-class shuttle tankers that are designed to transport oil from an offshore oil field to a storage tank and equipped with a variety of offloading equipment.

DSME said a shuttle tanker is about 1.5 times more expensive than a very large crude carrier and it is very hard to meet the delivery requirement because of difficulties in building the vessel.

The ships boast equipment powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas, as well as an eco-friendly device called the volatile organic compounds recovery system, the shipbuilder said.

Those shuttle tankers are also equipped with safety, anti-spill and other top-of-the-line devices as the dynamic positioning system and the bow loading system, DSME added.

DSME, the world's No. 4 shipbuilder by order backlog, has been faring well this year thanks to brisk demand for LNG carriers. So far this year, DSME has bagged orders worth $6.43 billion, nearly 72 percent of its yearly order target of $8.9 billion.

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