K Line to participate in order for small LNG carriers

The Japanese shipping company K Line has been appointed as the partner of Statoil ASA in its LNG coastal transportation project and the two companies will work together to develop the concept of coastal LNG transportation.

This project aims to deliver LNG from the Snohvit LNG plant in Melkoya or LNG terminals in Europe, including Belgium and UK, to coastal towns in Norway by means of small LNG vessels. K Line will work together with LNG Norge, 100% subsidiary of Statoil, to study and develop the concept and to evaluate the idea for implementation.

The study will commence this month and will continue until middle of this year when the two companies will have completed the design of the basic concept, vessel specifications and selection of the ship builder. As a consequence, if Statoil decides to implement this project, K Line will then, together with Statoil, be the owner/operator of the vessel(s) that will be delivered around late 2006 or early 2007. Initially the vessel(s) will be engaged in domestic transportation but their activities can be expanded to ports in neighboring countries.