Sembcorp Marine shipyard secures LNG refit contract

SembCorp Marine has been awarded a long-term contract from Australia?s North West Shelf venture (NWS), an unincorporated joint venture, equally owned by BP, BHP Billiton, ChevronTexaco, MIMI (a joint Mitsubishi and Mitsui company), Shell and

Woodside companies, to provide ship dry-docking, refit, and other marine services,

for their fleet of LNG ships. This breakthrough contract signifies the first time that

a major LNG consortium has committed itself to a long-term maintenance and

refit contract in the region. At a time when Singapore is preparing itself to be a

major hub and player in the LNG sector, the selection of SembCorp Marine as a

refit partner of NWS, is a great boost to the Singapore marine industry and

reinforces the Shipyard Group?s leadership position in LNG refits.

The contract, commits the retrofitting and dry-docking of a number of NWS Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) carriers to SembCorp Marine?s Sembawang Shipyard and Jurong Shipyard for a five-year term with an option for extension of the contract. Both yards are subsidiaries of the SembCorp Marine Group. The NWS venture owns and operates nine LNG ships which require dry docking services every 30 months. SembCorp Marine will perform approximately half of the refits, while the remainder of the refits will be performed in the facilities of the original Japan Consortium builders, who have a separate agreement with NWS to provide similar type of services.

In addition to the conventional refit scope work, a number of other major tasks are planned for the next five years, including among others, the replacement of halon fire fighting systems with environmentally friendly alternatives, TBT paint removal, and vessel life extension.

With the signing of this contract, NWS LNG vessels are scheduled to undergo maintenance dry-docking and repairs including several major upgrades at an estimated $45 million over 5 years. The Northwest Seaeagle will be the first vessel to be dry-docked under the contract, first in the series of 3 LNG carriers scheduled for refits in 2005.