And here’s another LNG tanker off Mellieha – is it the same one travelling about or is there a nest somewhere?

Published: March 26, 2014 at 12:18pm

This photograph was also taken this morning, from Mellieha.

It’s the LNG CAPRICORN, 285m long and 42m wide, similar to the one which will be berthed permanently at Marsaxlokk.

LNG tanker Mellieha




34 Comments Comment

  1. FP says:

    According to the AIS, that’s the Rasheeda LNG tanker (this is the only LNG tanker in the vicinity), the same one spotted earlier.

    However, this is what the Rasheeda is supposed to look like according to marinetraffic’s database: http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/photos/of/ships/photo_keywords:9443413/ship_name:RASHEEDA#462371

  2. Jack sparrow says:

    Can i have your email please

    [Daphne – dcgalizia@gmail.com]

  3. Darren says:

    I have seen it from Rabat off the Maghtab coast and it was HUGE

  4. watchful eye says:

    Could it well be the LNG GEMINI getting accustomed to the surroundings?

    • Antoine Vella says:

      The Gemini has no engines so it cannot navigate under its own steam; it will be towed to Malta. This is its sister ship, the Capricorn.

  5. Lorry says:

    Daphne, this is a case in point. Such ships are so huge that can be visible from various locations. It is the same ship, the LNG Capricorn.

    • Katrin says:

      No, it is the same kind of ship, but not the same ship.

      Geographically speaking you cannot get the same full profile view of the ship from Ta’ Giorni and Mellieha Bay.

      • Procedures says:

        Same ship – LNG Capricorn. This morning’s photo showed her proceeding to St Paul’s Bay area for a personnel transfer operation.

  6. Maradona says:

    Looks like a big figolla for Easter.

  7. Jozef says:

    Exterminate….exterminate…

  8. canon says:

    The way the government is reacting to this tragedy stinks.

  9. simca says:

    Is this some sort of “spot the LNG tanker” competition? What are the prizes? Nofs tuzzana pastizzi tar-Rabat or perhaps an iced bun?

  10. Paul Borg says:

    My God! Has the island been evacuated in case it explodes?

  11. Gorg Borg says:

    The forecast for the next few days is a strong southerly. Ships usually take cover outside St. Paul’s Bay/Mellieha area when a strong south wind blows. And this government intends to put that thing EXACTLY in the harbour mouth facing the southerly winds. Mur ifhem.

  12. ciccio says:

    I read somewhere that the LNG rust bucket which Jo will be mooring in the Marsaxlokk Bay is 40-odd years old.

    Isn’t that a return to the Mintoffian mentality of buying second hand junk for public infrastructure?

    Reminds me of the Strouger telephone switching system which Mintoff had bought from some African country back in the 1970s. Back then, when you dialled the number of somebody you knew, you would find yourself holding a teleconference with half of Malta.

  13. patrick mifsud says:

    Qed taraw kif mhux min Marsaxlokk jidhlu dawn it-tip ta’ vapuri? Kellu ragun Jo.

  14. canon says:

    Good-bye Marsaxlokk.

  15. ciccio says:

    Spring started a few days ago. Maybe it’s the mating season for LNG tankers.

  16. Sel says:

    Anyone has a clue as to why the Marsaxlokk residents were shouting and booing during the MEPA sitting? Or it was some rent-a-mob pretending to be Marsaxlokk residents? I’m asking since I can’t find a valid reason for behaving in such manner.

  17. observer says:

    SeaRadar 24 shows LNG Capricorn as sailing off Malta (about 18 miles to the Northeast) on a course of 160 degrees (i.e. towards the Southeast of Malta) with its destination indicated as MALTA OPL.

    Its track (presumably during to-day) is shown as commencing from the East/Northeast of Malta, proceeding practically westwards towards Comino and doing a 360 degree turn towards its present position.

    The reason for all this maneuvering to-day is known to the tanker’s master, her owners and …….who else?

  18. Francis Saliba M.D. says:

    There is no need for all this transparency (lack thereof) in the creation of this LNG tanker hazard with unseemly haste inside Marsaxlokk harbour.

    This unnecessary danger is being created only “in aid of” Joseph Muscat who otherwise would need to resign, to keep his pre-election promise, if he did not succeed to reduce the electricity rates within the next few days.

    I suggest that the Maltese nation issue a collective waiver to Muscat exempting him from the ethical need to keep his solemn promise to resign. This would go a long away towards reducing the risk of instant extinction of the population around Marsaxlokk Bay and of the power supply to the whole island.

    Let us be blunt. if the Hon Minister Mallia did not keep his promise to resign if the IIP scheme was tied up with a Malta residence of even one day it would be foolish to expect his chief, the Hon Prime Minister, to resign if the Maltese were not provided with cheap electricity by the end of this month.

    • Gaetano Pace says:

      Resignation is not in the Labour lexicon, dictionary, vocabulary. There is only the deep regret of the Minister of Education who publicly expresses his opinion of “Shame, the culture of resignation has not shed roots in this country.” If only it did who would be the first to go ?

  19. Gaetano Pace says:

    LNG Gemini and LNG Capricorn are sister ships, built by the same yard in the States and owned by the same German company. They were also built in the same year some 40 odd years ago.

    • bob-a-job says:

      There were 9 LNG carriers originally built by the GD Quincy shipyard between 1977 and 1980. The shipyard went bankrupt a couple of years after.

      These were Aries, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Taurus, Virgo and finally Abuja and Edo.

      Some have been scrapped or are lying idle and a couple have been converted to FSRUs.

  20. Zaren says:

    Ma tafux li issa gej l-Ghid? Dak figolla bil-bajd b’kollox, ghal wahda, tnejn, tlieta erba’ jekk mhux hamsa. L-Ghid it-tajjeb.

  21. clay says:

    I know that ship well. I help build it in the 70s, good to see it still in service after all the years.

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