US company Agility Gas Technologies (AGT) is to meet shipyard representatives as it moves forward with its new "Jumbo" very large ethane carrier (VLEC) project.
CEO Charles Matar told TradeWinds he will begin talks in the US next month at Gastech.
He will also meet class society ABS over the "game-changing" ethylene carrier.
"The US ethylene shipping segment of the industry will soon explode especially when Enterprise and Navigator start their operation," he said.
Herbert Engineering Corp (HEC) has completed the concept designs for the ship, providing two versions of a 165,000-cbm vessel, dubbed JEC.
AGT's technology allows the shipping of high-value gases like ethylene, propylene and Ethane safely and in large volumes.
HEC's John Paulling said: "We were excited to take on this project, and are happy to report that we were able to design a ship that is the first of its kind."
Paulling added that the unit is capable of safely carrying the largest ethylene cargo so far conceived using LNG as a refrigerant to keep the ethylene in a liquefied state and then utilising the resulting boil-off gas as the ship's fuel.
Matar added: "The design and full report that we received from HEC far exceeded our expectations. It provides us the opportunity to approach various qualified shipyards to get a cost estimate along with delivery time for the JEC, as well as many discoveries that are now under pending patents.
"AGT is currently in talks with potential investors to establish a high-value gas trading company. Having this ship design adds great value to our plans."
In March, AGT said it was developing an atmospheric-pressure cryogenic-liquid chemical transport vessel of 180,000 cbm, compared to the 35,000-cbm ships in the water now.
