QGTC orders QMax carriers

Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) is ordering six QMax LNG carriers of 266,000 cu. m capacity each. These will be the largest LNG carriers built to date with about 25% greater capacity than any other LNG tanker currently on order.

The ships are to be built by Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries with each constructing three units for delivery by November 2008. The vessels will be placed on a 25-year charter to Qatar Liquefied Gas Company Limited (II) (QGII) beginning mid-2008, and their delivered cost will reportedly be approximately $285 million each. QGII intends to use the vessels to transport LNG from its train numbers 4 and 5, which will each have a production of 7.8 million tonnes per annum.

Ship particulars are 345m in length, 54m in breadth and 27m in depth. The ships will be powered by twin slow speed diesel engines and will have full scale on-board re-liquefaction plants which maximise LNG deliveries to QGII’s customers. The newbuildings will incorporate the latest technology for safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation of LNG over many years, and are the result of several years of engineering design work and testing.

Nakilat regards the order for the six QMax ships for QGII as the beginning of a series of additional vessels it hopes to be ordering over the next 8-10 months for other Qatar LNG ventures. In addition to these 6 ships which QGTC will own 100%, the company has 30-60% equity interest in another 28 LNG ships delivered or on order to service Qatar LNG projects.