RasGas orders 12 Q-Flex LNG carriers

In the largest ever commercial shipping contract in the world, RasGas (3) signed time charter agreements with JC Nakilat and Teekay Nakilat for $9bn 25-year charter of 12 large Q-Flex sized membrane LNG tankers.

The ships will be built at the three South Korean shipyards – Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (five ships), Samsung Heavy Industries (four) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (three) at a total cost of $3bn. With this agreement, RasGas? long-term charter fleet will consist of 26 ships.

A RasGas spokesman said the Q-Flex ships would be delivered to the company between March and August 2008. Each Q-Flex tanker will have cargo capacity ranging between 210,000cu m and 217,000cu m and the ships will be employed in the exportation of LNG from Ras Laffan, Qatar, to the USA.

The JC Nakilat consortium, comprising of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. (“K” Line), Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui), Iino Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd. (Iino) and Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd. (QGTC), will own and operated eight of the gas carriers. The consortium signed shipbuilding contracts with DSME and HHI for the construction of the five and three ships respectively.