Besiktas takes over LNG order

Turkey’s Besiktas Group has secured a deal worth ?60m ($80.5m) to take over an order to construct four LNG tankers. Liquid gas and chemical carrier specialist Gas and Heat, based in Livorno, Italy, had originally given the construction project for the 3,360m3 ships to another Turkish builder, Berk Shipyard, on behalf of Greece’s Vafias Group.

After Vafias cancelled the order owing to delays, Gas and Heat decided to keep the vessels for itself and transferred the deal to Besiktas, which also operates nine tankers and manages another two for BP. Only the hull of the first ship was built at Berk, so the completion of this first vessel and the total construction of the remaining three carriers will be carried out by Besiktas. The first of the vessels, which will be built at Besiktas’ Altinova-Yalova Shipyard near Istanbul, will be delivered in November, with the second to follow in February 2010 and the remaining two in May.

The Besiktas yard, which has an annual capacity of six ships of up to 30,000 DWT, is one of the most modern in Turkey. The first steel cutting took place in March last year and delivery of the yard’s first three ships is due before the end of June. Besiktas is also building a dry dock at the yard that will be able to accommodate post-Panamax ships. The company expects to start its shiprepair business at Altinova this year. Work on a new yard at Ceyhan, the eastern Turkish port used for exports of oil piped from Azerbaijan and Iraq, is scheduled to begin this year.