Qatar Gas Transport Company to own 100% of QMax LNG Carriers

These will be the largest LNG carriers ever constructed.

According to Muhammad Ghannam, QGTC's Acting Managing Director, 'these ships will be ordered from Korean shipyards Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering and Samsung Heavy Industries. 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 tons/year.'

These state-of-the art vessels once delivered from the shipyards will be placed on long term charter to QGII beginning mid-2008, and their delivered cost will be approximately US $300 million each.

Ghannam says, "It has always been the goal of QGTC to fully own and eventually operate LNG carriers for Qatari projects. We see the six QMax ships for QGII as the beginning of a series of additional vessels we hope to be ordering over the next 8-10 months for other Qatar LNG ventures.

'The ships 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."

The ships will be powered by twin slow speed diesel engines and will have full scale on-board re-liquefaction plants which maximize LNG deliveries to QGII's Customers. Modification of existing shore side technology to onboard use allowed the vessels to use more efficient slow speed diesel and depart from the traditional but less efficient steam turbine.

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.