VESSEL REVIEW | Eleanor & Emblematic – Singapore's Petredec to deploy handysize ethylene carriers on global routes

Singapore-based Petredec has added two new 24,000-cubic-metre (5.3-million-gallon) liquefied ethylene gas (LEG) carriers to the fleet of its wholly owned gas shipping subsidiary Fortitude Shipping.

Eleanor and Emblematic were independently designed and built by Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore and Engineering (CIMC SOE) in China. Eleanor, the second ship of the series, was delivered on September 29, 2026, and departed the yard following handover.

Both ships are registered in Singapore and classed by Bureau Veritas, with Petredec as manager.

Petredec placed the order in November 2023 for two firm LEG carriers plus options for another two. The company said at the time that it had specified higher cargo intake, reduced fuel consumption, scrubbers, and shaft generators for the newbuilds.

Capable of transporting a range of liquefied gas cargo types

As part of the Fortitude Shipping fleet, the newbuilds will transport ethylene, propylene and butadiene as well as ethane, LPG and ammonia across Asia, Europe, the Americas and the Middle East, serving majors and traders, alongside industrial end users and petrochemical producers.

Eleanor and Emblematic each have an LOA of 159.99 metres (524.9 feet), a length between perpendiculars of 157.25 metres (515.91 feet), a beam of 25.4 metres (83.3 feet), a depth of 16.8 metres (55.1 feet), and a draught of 11.4 metres (37.4 feet). Deadweight is 23,794 and gross tonnage is 18,943.

Cargo is carried in Type C bi-lobe tanks, and the ships hold the Bureau Veritas notation for liquefied gas carriers of the LEG IMO Type 2G category.

CIMC SOE said that optimising hull lines and layout gave the LEG carriers greater cargo capacity as well as a design speed of 16 knots. The yard reported that Eleanor even achieved an actual speed one knot higher than the original design speed.

Fitted with low-emission propulsion systems

Propulsion for each ship is provided by a WinGD 5X52-S2.0 two-stroke, five-cylinder main engine rated 7,000 kW (9,000 hp) at 95 rpm driving a Zhenjiang Tongzhou fixed-pitch propeller.

The engine is fitted with WinGD's integrated selective catalytic reduction (SCR) unit, which mounts a high-pressure SCR reactor directly on the engine and brings its controls into the engine control system.

The arrangement ensures IMO Tier III NOx compliance while reducing the piping and space required for a separate installation.

An exhaust gas cleaning system handles sulphur emissions, and a shaft generator supplements three 1,300kW diesel generators and a 200kW emergency unit. Fuel capacity is 1,533.3 cubic metres (337,280 gallons).

Additional class notations include protected fuel oil tanks, unmanned machinery spaces, shaft monitoring, ballast water treatment, CLEANSHIP and in-water survey.

According to CIMC SOE, the shipowner rated the pair as the most energy-efficient vessel type in its current fleet. The new ships are also larger than Fortitude's earlier ethane/ethylene carriers built in China.

With Eleanor and Emblematic in service, Fortitude Shipping now operates a fleet of 11 handysize gas carriers capable of carrying ethylene and ethane and using semi-refrigerated systems, with an average age of five years.