ADNOC L&S venture firms up $250m ammonia carrier options

AW Shipping, a joint venture of ADNOC Logistics & Services (ADNOC L&S) and China’s Wanhua Chemical Group, has firmed up orders for two more very large ammonia carriers (VLACs) at China’s Jiangnan Shipyard.

The contracts, inked in Abu Dhabi to mark an opening for Jiangnan Shipyard’s first office in the Middle East, are for optional newbuilds worth $125m each the jv secured earlier this year when also nine firm very large ethane carriers (VLECs) worth about $1.4bn in total were booked at the yard.

The LPG dual-fuel VLACs will have a capacity of 93,000 cu m and start delivering in 2026, with the latest ships in the series scheduled to be delivered by 2028.

AW Shipping was formed in 2020 to support a 10-year LPG supply contract, signed in 2018 between ADNOC and Wanhua. The unit ships LPG cargoes sourced from ADNOC and other global suppliers to Wanhua’s manufacturing bases in China and worldwide.

“These contracts demonstrate AW Shipping and ADNOC L&S’s commitment to meeting future demand for lower-carbon energy sources such as ammonia, which are increasingly vital in powering the energy transition,” said Abdulkareem Al Masabi, chairman of AW Shipping and chief executive of ADNOC L&S