Two new LNG vessels has been included in the recent expansion of Nakilat, the shipping arm of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Maran Ventures Inc., the Greek shipping company.
The Maran Nakilat Co. Ltd expanded the agreement on three occasions, after the company was established in 2005 with four jointly-owned vessels. The recent agreement has increased the number of vessels jointly-owned by Nakilat and Maran Gas to 13. The present expansion makes Nakilat as the world’s largest in terms of wholly and jointly owned LNG fleet.
The total number of LNG and LPG ships owned by Nakilat both partially or wholly will reach 67 in the third and fourth quarters of 2015, with the addition of the two new state-of-the-art vessels which are under construction in South Korea. The vessels are Tri-Fuel Diesel Electric (TFDE) propulsion models with the capacities of 161,870 cubic metres and 174,000 cubic metres respectively. Both the shipping companies felt contented with their strengthened ties.
Abdullah Al Sulaiti said: “Maran Gas is a highly reputed, quality operator and we are delighted in reconfirming our association with the company. This move strengthens ties between the two entities, and the current agreement allows for further expansion in the future,” adding, “Nakilat’s strong financial performance has allowed us to increase our fleet size further. Selecting strong partners in the shipping industry has been fundamental to Nakilat’s success and our relationship with Maran continues to be reinforced, since our first agreement in 2005.”
“We are extremely pleased to strengthen our relationship with Nakilat by this further expansion of Maran Nakilat. We are very proud of our association with Nakilat and look forward to working closely together in the future with their highly professional team in order to explore and develop opportunities in the LNG space,” said John Angelicoussis.
Source: Nakilat
