Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) held a naming ceremony on September 10, 2026, at Hanwha Ocean’s Geoje Shipyard in South Korea for the world’s first LNG carrier equipped with two units of the Wind Challenger hard-sail wind-assisted propulsion system. The 174,000 cubic-meter vessel, measuring 294.9 meters in length and 46.4 meters in breadth, was formally named FUJIN SAILOR by Molly T. Laegeler, President of Chevron’s Supply & Trading business, who served as the ship’s godmother. The Wind Challenger system is designed to harness wind power alongside conventional propulsion to cut fuel consumption and the associated greenhouse gas emissions of LNG transport.
FUJIN SAILOR is scheduled for delivery under a long-term charter contract to Chevron Corporation at the end of September 2026. The vessel is the fourth of a total of 11 MOL Group ships that have been or will be equipped with Wind Challenger technology, as the Japanese shipping major pursues its target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, with plans to deploy 25 Wind Challenger-equipped vessels by 2030 and 80 by 2035. MOL Managing Executive Officer Makoto Inomoto thanked Hanwha Ocean for its technical support in installing the system and Chevron for its cooperation in bringing the project to completion.
Source: Motorship — https://www.motorship.com/news/wind-propulsion/mol-names-worlds-first-wind-assisted-lng-carrier/
Tags: LNG Shipping, Wind Propulsion, Decarbonization, Chevron
