New LNG Carrier For Naqilat
At a ceremony held on 30 September at the Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard on Geoje Island, South Korea, Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry 'Abd Allah al-'Attiyah named a new Q-Max LNG carrier, the 266,000 cu ms Al-Dafna. Naqilat’s Managing Director Muhammad Ghannam said that the new carrier is the 50th ship to be named in the fleet of 54 vessels that are being built in South Korean shipyards to service Qatar’s massive LNG expansion projects, and noted that 22 of the vessels of the fleet are to be chartered to RasGas. According to the latter’s Managing Director Hamad al-Muhannadi, al-Dafna will complete the fleet of ships ordered as part of the RasGas Trains 6 and 7 shipbuilding program. With the latest addition RasGas’s charter fleet will reach 27 LNG carriers –14 conventional and 13 large vessels. The Q-Max LNG carriers are purpose built for Naqilat, the sole owner of the vessels, and al-Dafna will be chartered to RasGas on a long-term basis.
Copyright MEES 2009.
