Lianyungang Maritime Authority Escorts Yancheng's "Green Energy Port" as Total Unloading Volume Exceeds 10 Million Tons

On August 18, the Marshall Islands-registered liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier "Malibu" safely unloaded 66,000 tons of LNG and slowly departed the dock under the vigilance and maintenance of a patrol boat, marking the successful breakthrough of 10 million tons in total LNG unloading volume at CNOOC Yancheng "Green Energy Port."

CNOOC Yancheng "Green Energy Port" is located in Binhai County, Jiangsu Province, and is a key project in the construction of the national natural gas "production, supply, storage, and marketing" system. It has completed and commissioned 10 large-scale LNG storage tanks, including 4 tanks with a single capacity of 220,000 cubic meters and 6 tanks with a capacity of 270,000 cubic meters, making it the largest LNG energy hub station in China. From the successful unloading of the first 210,000-cubic-meter vessel "Al Kharsaah" after the terminal's commissioning on September 26, 2022, to the safe departure of the "Malibu," it took less than four years to unload 152 vessels with a total volume of 10.03 million tons. This fully demonstrates the unloading efficiency and capacity of Yancheng "Green Energy Port" and highlights the outstanding organization of vessel traffic and port clearance efficiency.

LNG vessels are specialized ships designed to transport liquefied natural gas under extremely low temperatures of -163°C. Known as "super refrigerated trucks at sea," they are high-tech, high-difficulty, and high-value-added "three-high" products, requiring stringent safety guarantees for maritime transportation and posing significant regulatory challenges. To ensure the safe and efficient entry and departure of LNG vessels, Yancheng maritime authorities have implemented a "one vessel, one policy" special guarantee plan; strengthened risk assessment and maritime traffic organization for vessel entry and departure; adopted a "three-dimensional" guarantee mechanism with "VTS full-area monitoring, patrol boat on-site vigilance and maintenance, and drone aerial supervision"; established and improved a "single vessel safety assessment" mechanism to enhance full-process risk prevention for vessel navigation and port operations; innovatively implemented the "hot berthing" docking mode to significantly improve port navigation efficiency; and collaborated with border inspection and customs departments to open green channels and carry out a "one-time boarding inspection" joint verification model, continuously improving vessel clearance efficiency.

From "zero" to "one," then to "hundreds of vessels" and "tens of millions of tons," Yancheng maritime authorities have built a solid maritime traffic safety barrier for the rapid development of this national energy hub through precise and efficient regulatory services and comprehensive, three-dimensional safety guarantees. In the future, maritime authorities will continue to focus on serving the national energy security strategy, further optimizing LNG vessel navigation guarantee measures, continuously improving their ability to support port development, and further consolidating Yancheng "Green Energy Port" as a national energy hub. This will provide more robust maritime traffic support for regional energy structure transformation and green, low-carbon economic development.