Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT), the preeminent name in LNG containment systems, is seeing plenty of rivals snapping at its heels.
South Korean shipbuilders have been working on their own systems for a number of years in order to avoid paying hefty sums to the French company for any membrane LNG carrier order they get.
In China, the LNT A-BOX containment system, developed by offshore veteran David Wu, is now getting serious traction with Qatar, one of the biggest users of GTT systems, now forging closer ties with the Chinese upstart.
Qatar Petroleum along with Qatargas, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total have set about working with LNT A-BOX, class society ABS and Shanghai Waigaoqiao Shipbuilding to work on the development of new medium and large LNG carrier designs.
The LNT A-BOX containment system offers a self-supporting prismatic IMO independent type A tank, placed in an insulated cargo hold with a full secondary barrier.
GTT’s membrane containment systems outmuscled the previous popular Moss spherical designs two decades ago and have since cornered the market.
