LNG Bayelsa Becomes a Floating Storage Unit for Gabon's Cap Lopez Project
Drydocks World Dubai is rebuilding the carrier as FSU LNG Cap Lopez for Perenco sister company Dixstone Lower Gulf.
A retired LNG carrier is being rebuilt as a floating storage unit for Gabon's offshore gas industry, in a conversion that puts a second working life ahead of a scrapping decision.
The ship, formerly the LNG Bayelsa and now sailing under the temporary name FSU LNG Cap Lopez, is under conversion at Drydocks World Dubai. The owner is Dixstone Lower Gulf FZCO, a sister company of Perenco. Once the yard work is finished, the unit will hold LNG for an offshore development in Gabon, taking product from a nearshore liquefaction barge and holding it until export cargoes are lifted.
The scope of work is heavier than a routine repair period. Steel is being renewed and new structure added for the storage role, piping systems are being replaced, and a boil-off gas module is being installed to manage vapour that cannot be avoided once the ship stops trading and starts sitting. A broader package of life-extension measures runs alongside those items, since a unit moored on station for years faces a different fatigue and corrosion profile than a carrier that spends its life on a liner rotation.
Lloyd's Register is providing classification and technical assurance across the whole conversion, covering plan approval, survey and technical oversight. That role matters more than usual on a project of this shape: the ship is being asked to do something its original class notation never contemplated, so the classification society has to satisfy itself that the modified structure, the new systems and the new operating profile all still meet safety and regulatory requirements.
Sean Van der Post, Global Offshore Business Director at Lloyd's Register, said the project reflects growing momentum behind carrier conversions and floating storage as operators look for flexible, lower-impact ways to develop gas. He said independent technical assurance and robust life-extension strategies become essential when an asset is adapted to a new operating profile and a new environment.
The commercial logic is speed and cost. Building a purpose-made storage unit means a yard slot, a long lead time and a full newbuilding price. Taking a hull that already has cargo containment, insulation and cryogenic piping and adapting it compresses that timeline considerably, which is why conversions have become a common route for offshore gas developments that need storage before they need anything else.
Michel Gotab, Managing Director of Dixstone Lower Gulf, described the unit as an integral part of the wider Cap Lopez project, which he called a new gas backbone for Gabon serving both domestic use and export. Part of the stated rationale for the development is reducing routine flaring, capturing gas that would otherwise be burned off at the wellhead.
For Gabon, the arrangement adds export capacity without committing to fixed onshore infrastructure. For the vessel, it converts an asset that had reached the end of its trading usefulness into a fixed piece of energy infrastructure with a defined role and a measurable service life.
