Japanese get Qatar LNG contract

Ras Laffan Natural Gas Co. (RasGas) in Qatar has awarded five Japanese firms a joint contract to ship LNG from Qatar to the US. The contract is the firms’ first for transport of LNG to North America.

Trading house Mitsui & Co., along with shipping companies Mitsui OSK, Nippon Yusen KK, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, and Iino Kaiun Kaisha, secured a 25-year contract to take effect in August 2008. The contract covers about 5.2 million tonnes/year of LNG, or eight LNG tankers out of the 12 that Ras Laffan plans to use.

The Japanese firms plan to spend a total of $1.83 billion to build eight 210,000 sq m ships which will be built in South Korea’s by Daewoo Shipbuilding and Hyundai Heavy Industry. Earlier this month, RasGas III ordered 12 LNG carriers worth $2.9 billion total from three South Korean shipbuilders.