Economy & Energy
Skaramangas Shipyards: the first LNG carrier repair in Greece, with certification from France’s GTT
Skaramangas Shipyards completed the first repair of an LNG carrier in a Greek yard, the Maran Gas Amphipolis, and was certified by France’s GTT as an approved repair yard for its tank technology.
An LNG carrier, that is, a ship that transports natural gas in liquid form, was repaired for the first time in a Greek shipyard. Skaramangas Shipyards completed the repair of the Maran Gas Amphipolis of Maran Gas Maritime, a company of the Angelicoussis Group, and at the same time the yard announced that France’s GTT has certified it as an approved repair yard for ships with its tank technology.
The shipyard made the project known in a post on its official LinkedIn account, where it speaks of a historic first and of a success for the whole Greek ship repair sector. The ship entered the dock at Skaramangas, where the repairs and the scheduled Special Survey required for its class were carried out.
Inerting the tank with nitrogen
LNG carriers are not ordinary work for a shipyard. They carry the gas in liquid form, at temperatures far below zero, in specially insulated tanks, and any work on them requires strict safety procedures. On the Maran Gas Amphipolis Skaramangas Shipyards also filled the cargo tank with nitrogen to make it inert, a procedure that displaces oxygen and gas residues so that no flammable mixture forms.
The certification by Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT) carries particular weight. The French company designs the membrane systems used by the tanks of a large part of the world’s LNG carriers, and the GTT Approved Repair Yard title certifies that Skaramangas can undertake work on ships with this technology. The yard thanked Maran Gas for its trust. As this is the first LNG carrier repaired in a Greek yard, Greek shipowners had until now sent such ships to yards abroad.
The Maran Gas Amphipolis
The ship was built in 2016, is 295 metres long and has a gross tonnage of 113,037 GT. She flies the Greek flag and her classification society is the American ABS. She belongs to the fleet of Maran Gas Maritime, the Angelicoussis Group company that manages the group’s gas carriers.
Skaramangas Shipyards, which also takes part in Hellenic Navy programmes such as the VICTA special forces craft, is thus seeking to open a new line of work, in a market where demand for LNG carriers is growing. The project comes at a time when Greek shipbuilding is taking on a role in defence programmes too, with dozens of Greek companies, among them more than 75 firms, already taking part in building the FDI frigates.