Seatrium to Convert Five Karpowership Whale Class Floating Power Plants

Seatrium has won work on five large floating power plants for Karpowership, expanding a relationship that already includes a series of floating storage and regasification unit conversions. The Singapore engineering group will take on major conversion work and equipment integration for the Turkish company’s third-generation Whale Class vessels. The first ship is scheduled to reach Seatrium’s Tuas Boulevard yard in December 2027.

The project’s scope runs from conversion through mechanical completion and pre-commissioning. Engineering work is already underway, although the companies have not disclosed the contract value. That means the immediate work is progressing ahead of the first vessel’s planned yard arrival, with the detailed physical conversion sequence still to come.

Ships designed for grid connection

Karpowership describes Whale Class as its largest floating power plant design. Each vessel can deliver up to 600MW of electricity, and the ships are planned to carry hydrogen-ready multi-fuel generation systems alongside integrated onboard substations. Those substations are intended to let the vessels connect directly to national electricity grids.

The combination of generation equipment and grid connection infrastructure gives the conversion work a specific operational purpose: preparing each vessel to produce electricity and deliver it ashore. Karpowership says the ships could begin supplying power within 30 days of deployment. That is the company’s stated deployment capability; the source does not set out the conditions or steps behind the timetable.

For Seatrium, the work spans several linked stages rather than a single equipment installation. Major conversion work changes the vessel for its power-generation role; equipment integration brings the relevant systems together; mechanical completion and pre-commissioning prepare the installed systems for later operation. The source does not specify the equipment list, vessel-by-vessel schedule, or commissioning arrangements.

A wider conversion relationship

The five-vessel award follows a letter of intent signed by the companies in August 2025. That document covered three FSRU conversions and the possible integration of as many as six new-generation powerships. The current contract confirms work on five powerships, while the earlier letter also outlined a separate FSRU programme. The source does not provide further details on the status or timing of those FSRU conversions.

Seatrium and Karpowership began working together in 2018. Since then, Seatrium has completed seven FSRU conversion projects for the customer. The Singapore group also secured the eighth and ninth FSRU conversion projects earlier this year, according to the source. Taken together, the reported awards show that the relationship covers both floating power plants and vessels used for floating gas storage and regasification.

The track record gives the new award a practical context: the companies have worked through multiple conversion projects before, and the fresh scope adds five Whale Class vessels to that activity. Still, the source does not say whether all five conversions will run in parallel, how long each will occupy the yard, or when the remaining vessels are expected to arrive. Those details will matter to yard planning and the pace at which the fleet can be prepared.

What operators will be watching

The first stated milestone is the arrival of the initial vessel at Tuas Boulevard in December 2027. Until then, engineering is underway, with the contract value and individual vessel schedules undisclosed. For operators tracking the project, the next useful details will be the sequence of yard arrivals and the timing of completion and pre-commissioning for each ship.

The design’s stated capacity and connection arrangements point to the scale of the conversion challenge: each vessel is built around power generation of up to 600MW, with onboard equipment intended to connect output to a grid. Karpowership’s 30-day deployment claim adds a clear operational target, but actual readiness will depend on the completed vessel and deployment circumstances, details the source does not provide.

For now, the confirmed scope is five Whale Class conversions, engineering underway, and the first arrival planned for late 2027. The work extends Seatrium’s conversion portfolio with Karpowership while preparing a sizeable floating generation fleet for grid connection.