Process for building a LNG carrier:

1. Keel laying

First contact of the vessel with the slipway. This holds the longitudinal weight of the vessel. It is aligned from bow to stern with the supports or keel blocks, which are placed in accordance with a program that monitors the distribution of the forces which each one is to withstand.  The load must be distributed in a constant way along them..

2. Blocks laying in slipway

This usually begins with the blocks in the bow and moves along towards the stern.  The blocks are already fitted with the pipes and the rest of elements.

3. Cargo containment system. Isolation barriers: secondary and primary

This is one of the most delicate parts, due to the cargo that they will be containing.

Placed between the secondary isolation boxes and the ballast tank bulkhead is a material known as epoxy, which is used to compensate deformations in that bulkhead.

This procedure begins placing the secondary isolation boxes, which are made of wood and are filled with perlite (approximately 50 kg of weight in each box, in all), and then the invar membrane, as a secondary interbarrier.

This continues placing the primary isolation boxes, which are made of wood and are filled with perlite (approximately 50 kg of weight in each box, in all), and then the invar membrane, as a primary interbarrier that will be the contact surface with the loaded product.

4. Launching

Moment when the vessel is placed into the water by slipping it along the dry slipway in which she was built, after the vessel’s godmother breaks a bottle against the hull. In case the vessel has been built in a dry dock, this will be flooded until the vessel is floating.

5. Sea trials tests

The vessel goes out from the shipyard to sail. All of the vessel's equipments and services are tested (except those purely for loading/unloading, which are left for the gas trials). These includes:

   > Runs are performed at different speeds, and the results are compared with those got in the prior seatrials tests.
   > Hydraulic tests are performed on the ballast tanks, by filling them at different stages.
   > Towing equipment.
   > Lowering winch, test of free-falling boat.
   > Fire-fighting circuit.
   > Tests on the various alarms.
   > Cofferdams´ overhaul.
   > Transfer of FO and DO.
   > Noise verification in bulkheads between cabins.
   > Anchoring manoeuvres (tests on anchors, chain lengths and winches).
   > Bow thruster’s tests.
   > The astern turbine is tested.
   > Navigation equipment.
   > Vibrations measurement.

6. Dry Docking

The hull and rudder are painted, and it is verified that the propeller is perfectly polished.

7. Gas Trials

A small amount of LNG is loaded in order to test all of the systems and equipment involved in the loading and unloading operations, as well as the cargo transfer from one tank to the other, the compressors/pumps/valves working, the entire piping system on the deck and the circuit up to the engine; the vessel sails at various speeds, the remaining cargo is unloaded and the vessel sails to the port of delivery.

8. Delivery

This is the moment at which the shipyard physically delivers the vessel to the ship owner.  From that moment on, the vessel is under guarantee for a period of time.