''Methane Princess'' and ''Methane Progress'' were the first purpose-built LNG carriers, entering service in 1964 and used to transport natural gas from Algeria to the UK. ''Methane Princess'' was built at the Vickers shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness and her sister by Harland and Wolff in Belfast.

Design and construction

In 1958 the tanker ''

Methane Pioneer ''Methane Pioneer'' was the first oceangoing liquified natural gas tanker in the world. Built in 1945 as a cargo ship named ''Marline Hitch'', the vessel was renamed ''Don Aurelio'' and ''Nomarti'' before being rebuilt in 1958 for the purpose ...

'' entered service, converted from a cargo ship for the sea transport of liquified natural gas (LNG), by a joint venture of

Conoco Conoco Inc. ( ) was an American oil and gas company that operated from 1875 until 2002, when it merged with Phillips Petroleum to form ConocoPhillips. Founded by Isaac Elder Blake in 1875 as the "Continental Oil and Transportation Company". Curr ...

and

Union Stock Yards The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards, was the meatpacking district in Chicago for more than a century, starting in 1865. The district was operated by a group of railroad companies that acquired marshland and turned it into a central ...

, funded by the British Gas Council, later joined by the Shell and renamed Conch International Methane. Following the successful proving of the technological and commercial viability by ''Methane Pioneer'', two identical purpose-designed tankers were ordered by Conch to service a contract by British Gas to import LNG from Arzew, Algeria. One ship was ordered from Vickers-Armstrongs Shipbuilders at Barrow-in-Furness as Yard No.1071 and the other from Harland and Wolff in Belfast as Yard No.1653. Both ships were

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

and between perpendiculars, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of , and measured 21876 gross registered tons. Their cargo volume capacity was , divided between nine

prismatic An optical prism is a transparent optical element with flat, polished surfaces that are designed to refract light. At least one surface must be angled — elements with two parallel surfaces are ''not'' prisms. The most familiar type of optical ...

, or prism-shaped, tanks. Unlike the diesel-powered ''Methane Pioneer'', the new ships were powered by a novel system with dual fuel steam turbines, utilising boil-off LNG from the cargo tanks as well as conventional fuel oil. The keel of ''Methane Princess'' was laid on 26 April 1962 and she was launched on 22 June 1963. The keel of ''Methane Progress'' was laid on 24 September 1962 and she was launched on 19 September 1963.

Commercial operation

Although ''Methane Progress'' was completed first, on 26 May 1964, it was ''Methane Princess'' (completed 21 June) that took on the first load of natural gas at Arzew, Algeria when the liquefaction plant was opened on 27 September, and arrived at the Gas Council's terminal at Canvey island, Essex on 12 October. The two ships could transport 700,000 tons of liquified gas per year, then estimated as 10 percent of Britain's gas consumption. The import of LNG from Algeria to Canvey ceased in 1981. ''Methane Progress'' was scrapped in 1986 at Castellón, Spain, but her sister not until 1997, at Alang, India.

References

External links

*https://www.helderline.com/tanker/methane-princess-1 *https://web.archive.org/web/20070922174134/http://www.chesterahoy.com/SHIPS/bd.htm *https://web.archive.org/web/20080919133957/http://www.tonyholt.net/mprincess.htm Energy history of the United Kingdom Natural gas industry in the United Kingdom LNG tankers Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness 1963 ships Tankers of the United Kingdom {{Merchantship-stub