The LNG tanker LNG Rosenrot is now complete and will be delivered to Uniper in South Korea. Uniper will become the ship's first charterer as part of a transport service contract that covers multiple trips. The shipbuilders, South Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd. (DSME), today handed over the approximately 300-m-long and 50-m-wide transport ship for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the joint venture company owned by the two Japanese companies that ordered its construction—Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL) and Itochu Corporation—at the Okpo shipyard in South Korea. The new LNG ship will join a sister LNG ship currently used by Uniper.

LNG is a sector that Uniper has identified as a strategic growth area and that has undergone significant expansion in recent years. 225 cargos were traded in 2020, compared to 134 in the previous year. The Asia-Pacific region in particular has seen strong growth in the LNG trade in recent times: Uniper traded around two-thirds of its volumes of LNG in this region last year.

This second transport contract with MOL has increased the LNG transport capacity available to Uniper and will help the company to grow its presence in the LNG sector, while also increasing the flexibility of its LNG portfolio. LNG Rosenrot and other vessels of this type can transport around 180,000 m3 of LNG at speeds of up to 19.5 knots. The energy onboard is enough to supply approximately 65,000 single-family homes for a year.

Uniper board member and Chief Commercial Officer, Niek den Hollander: "LNG is helping to diversify gas sources around the world and strengthen both competition and security of supply — especially in European markets and in Germany, where reliance on certain supply regions is the subject of much discussion. Without LNG, there would be no global gas market. Liquefied natural gas now plays an important role in the energy supply, as well as in industry, the heating market and transport. As the production of natural gas in Europe continues to undergo a significant decline, the demand for imported natural gas will increase considerably in the coming years."

About Uniper

Uniper is a leading international energy company with around 11,500 employees and activities in more than 40 countries. With about 34 GW of installed generation capacity, Uniper is among the largest global power generators. Its main activities include power generation in Europe and Russia as well as global energy trading, including a diversified gas portfolio that makes Uniper one of Europe’s leading gas companies. In 2019, Uniper had a gas turnover of 220 bcm. The company is headquartered in Düsseldorf, being the third-largest listed German utility. Under its new strategy, Uniper aims to become carbon-neutral in Europe by 2035.