A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms to load and unload, and come in all sizes. Today, they are almost always built of welded steel, and with some exceptions generally have a life expectancy of 25 to 30 years before being scrapped.
A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are used for military purposes.
A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive hydrocarbons produced by itself or from nearby platforms or subsea template, process them, and store oil until it can be offloaded onto a tanker or, less frequently, transported through a pipeline. FPSOs are preferred in frontier offshore regions as they are easy to install, and do not require a local pipeline infrastructure to export oil. FPSOs can be a conversion of an oil tanker or can be a vessel built specially for the application. A vessel used only to store oil is referred to as a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel.
A tanker is a ship designed to transport or store liquids or gases in bulk. Major types of tankship include the oil tanker, the chemical tanker, cargo ships, and a gas carrier. Tankers also carry commodities such as vegetable oils, molasses and wine. In the United States Navy and Military Sealift Command, a tanker used to refuel other ships is called an oiler but many other navies use the terms tanker and replenishment tanker. Tankers were first developed in the late 19th century as iron and steel hulls and pumping systems were developed. As of 2005, there were just over 4,000 tankers and supertankers 10,000 LT DWT or greater operating worldwide.
QatarEnergy LNG, formerly Qatargas, is the world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) company. It produces and supplies the globe with 77 million metric tonnes of LNG annually from across its seven ventures—QatarEnergy LNG N(1), QatarEnergy LNG N(2), QatarEnergy LNG N(3), QatarEnergy LNG N(4), RL1, RL2 and RL3. It is headquartered in Doha, Qatar, and maintains its upstream assets in Ras Laffan, Qatar. Natural gas is supplied to the company's LNG trains from Qatar's North Field, by far the world's largest non-associated gas field. It reached a record LNG production of 77 million tonnes per year in December 2010. According to Brand Finance, QatarEnergy LNG is the world's fastest growing oil and gas brand in 2023. QatarGas is said to be used through gas diplomacy as leverage by Qatar on the EU and India to advance its interests and silence criticism of its human rights violations and corruption.
RasGas Company Limited was a liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing company in Qatar. It was the second-biggest LNG producer in Qatar after QatarEnergy LNG. RasGas operated seven LNG trains located in Ras Laffan Industrial City. It was merged with Qatargas on 1 January 2018.
An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Q-Flex is a type of ship, specifically a membrane type liquefied natural gas carrier.
Q-Max is a type of ship, specifically a membrane type LNG carrier. In the name Q-Max, "Q" stands for Qatar and "Max" for the maximum size of ship able to dock at the Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in Qatar. Ships of this type are the largest LNG carriers in the world.
South Hook LNG terminal is an LNG regasification terminal near Milford Haven and is the largest LNG terminal in Europe. Together with the smaller Dragon LNG terminal nearby, it can handle up to 25% of the UK's gas requirement. The first tanker docked on 20 March 2009.
The natural gas in Qatar covers a large portion of the world supply of natural gas. According to the Oil & Gas Journal, as of January 1, 2011, reserves of natural gas in Qatar were measured at approximately 896 trillion cubic feet ; this measurement means that the state contains 14% of all known natural-gas reserves, as the world's third-largest reserves, behind Russia and Iran. The majority of Qatar's natural gas is located in the massive offshore North Field, which spans an area roughly equivalent to Qatar itself. A part of the world's largest non-associated, natural-gas field, the North Field, is a geological extension of Iran's South Pars / North Dome Gas-Condensate field, which holds an additional 450 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural-gas reserves.
Ship measurements consist of a multitude of terms and definitions specifically related to ships and measuring or defining their characteristics.
Ras Laffan Industrial City is a Qatari industrial hub located 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Doha. It is administered by QatarEnergy.
Qatar Gas Transport Company Limited, commonly known as Nakilat is a Qatari shipping and maritime company. Its LNG shipping fleet is one of the largest in the world, comprising 74 vessels. The company also jointly owns one Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FSRU) and 4 very large LPG carriers (VLGCs). Through its in-house ship management, Nakilat manages and operates the four very large LPG carriers and 14 LNG carriers.
A gas carrier, gas tanker, LPG carrier, or LPG tanker is a ship designed to transport LPG, LNG, CNG, or liquefied chemical gases in bulk.
Klaipėda LNG terminal is a liquefied natural gas import terminal in the port of Klaipėda, Lithuania. It cost US$128 million to construct. The developer and owner of the project is KN Energies.
A marine LNG engine is a dual fuel engine that uses natural gas and bunker fuel to convert chemical energy in to mechanical energy. Due to natural gas' cleaner burning properties, the use of natural gas in merchant ship propulsion plants is becoming an option for companies in order to comply with IMO and MARPOL environmental regulations. The natural gas is stored in liquid state (LNG) and the boil-off gas is routed to and burned in dual fuel engines. Shipping companies have been cautious when choosing a propulsion system for their fleets. The steam turbine system has been the main choice as the prime mover on LNG carriers over the last several decades. The decades-old system on steam propelled LNG carriers uses BOG. LNG carriers are heavily insulated to keep the LNG at around -160 °C – to keep it liquefied. Despite insulation, the LNG containment area is penetrated by heat which allows for naturally generated boil-off gas (BOG).
Costa Azul LNG is a sea port and natural gas processing center, located 15 miles north of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Opened in 2008, the terminal can process up to one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. This is the first liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the North America west coast. LNG carrier ships capable of holding up to 220,000m3 of LNG can dock in the deep water port off the coast to unload LNG. The natural gas from the terminal is used to produce electricity and is fed by pipe lines to factories. The longest pipeline runs north, to the United States. Sempra Energy is a partner in the port with PEMEX. The LNG ship Al Safliya was the first ship to port and unload at Costa Azul. The Al Safliya is a 210,000 cubic meter LNG ship, its LNG was from Qatar. The other Mexican LNG Terminal in the Pacific Ocean is at Manzanillo, Colima, the Manzanillo LNG Terminal.
CMA CGM Jacques Saadé is a container ship operated by CMA CGM. She entered commercial operation on 23 September 2020 and is the first of a class of nine sister ships which at the time of construction were the world's largest vessels to be powered using liquefied natural gas. She is named after Jacques Saadé, the founder of CMA CGM and has a capacity of 23,000 TEU). In her own category, she is the largest container ship to sail under the French flag.
