The world's largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier vessel, Offshore Oil 301, completed the largest-scale single refueling in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Offshore Oil 301, which is China's first and the world's largest LNG carrier and refueling ship, refueled 4,300 tons of LNG for the German large container ship Hanoi Express at a speed of over 1,600 cubic meters per hour in one go at Hong Kong's Kwai Tsing Container Terminals.
Hanoi Express departed from Madagascar, passed through Malaysia and Singapore, and then arrived at Hong Kong's Kwai Tsing Container Terminals. After staying there for 24 hours to load and unload cargo, the ship headed to its next destination.
"Through the intelligent monitoring system, we completed the LNG refueling in just eight and a half hours. The refueling would not only meet the fuel demand of the entire voyage of the vessel, but also significantly reduced the port turnover time, setting a new record for the single refueling volume and efficiency in Hong Kong. This is the first time for a Hong Kong terminal to witness LNG refueling for ship, and also the first time that refueling and cargo handling operations were carried out simultaneously," said Kang Huahua, CFO of CNOOC Gas and Power Group.
Hong Kong is the world's seventh largest maritime fuel bunkering port.
Located in the core area of the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong witnesses more than 5,000 ocean-going vessels to visit it every year.
In 2024, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government issued the "Action Plan on Green Maritime Fuel Bunkering".
"This operation not only verifies the capabilities of Hong Kong terminals in cryogenic fuel operation, but also holds significant importance to consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international shipping center. Next, we will continue to leverage CNOOC's advantages in the entire LNG industrial chain, accelerate the construction of a clean fuel supply network in Hong Kong, and carry out regular refueling services," said Kang.
Data show that the volume of LNG refueling for ships in the Greater Bay Area city cluster in south China, including Hong Kong, increased by 280 percent year on year in 2024.
It is expected that by 2025, the global demand for LNG refueling will exceed 10 million tons, and by 2030, it will grow to 30 to 45 million tons.
China's first LNG carrier vessel completes largest-scale single refueling in Hong Kong
A video featuring a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII), was released on Thursday in northeast China's Harbin, revealing details of how the unit used meteorological data to conduct horrific bacterial experiments on human beings.
The video was released by the Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army, in which former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out a bacterial dispersal experiment.
The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, the capital city of Heilongjiang Province.
Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition of the exhibition hall, said that Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's field human experiments by measuring wind direction, wind speed, and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results, according to Jin.
Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.
At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground. They sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.
"Unit 731's bacterial weapons were dropped by aircraft from a height of 50 meters in the open air. Therefore, the meteorological squad needed to observe wind direction and speed, which directly affected the precision and accuracy of the bacterial weapons deployment," said Jin.
Nishijima recounted the harrowing experience of the human test subjects.
"They were fully aware that inhaling the substances would certainly lead to death, so they closed their eyes and held their breath to avoid breathing them in. Their resistance prevented the experiment from proceeding. To compel them to comply, they were forced at gunpoint to open their mouths and lift their heads," said Nishijima.
These experiments, disguised as "scientific research," were in fact systematic tests of biological warfare weapons conducted by the Japanese military. The data generated from these inhumane activities became "research findings" shared among the Japanese army medical school, the medical community, and the military at large.
"At that time, the entire Japanese medical community tacitly approved, encouraged, and even participated in the criminal acts of Unit 731. The unit comprised members from Japan's medical and academic sectors who served the Japanese war of aggression against China. Thus, Unit 731 was not just a military unit but represented an organized and systematic criminal enterprise operating from the top down," said Jin.
Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.
At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and Japan's biological weapons killed more than 300,000 people in China.
Video offers details of Japan's germ-warfare crimes in northeast China
