Knutsen NYK JV takes interest in two carriers
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- Published on Monday, 09 June 2014 06:55
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A LNG JOURNAL TITLE ON LNG TANKERS 29 May 2014
ORDERS
Japanese shipping company NYK Line and Norwegian Knutsen OAS shipping, through its entity TS Shipping Invest AS (TSSI), have agreed 50/50 ownership on two LNG carriers being built for Gas Natural Fenosa charter.
Norway’s Knutsen OAS last May had concluded a shipbuilding deal with Hyundai Heavy Industries for two hulls for its new ship owning companies, Norspan LNG IX AS and Norspan LNG X AS.
Gas Natural selected it to manage two newbuildings for the Stream LNG fleet, formerly owned
by Spanish Repsol. The fleet is now owned by Shell.
Spanish shipping company Elcano around the same time reportedly booked two LNG newbuildings for Gas Natural charter.
The ships were signed on two time charters for period of 20 years, following delivery in third and fourth quarter of 2016, after which the charterer will have options to extend the charter for two periods of five years successively.
The two identical sister ships will have a capacity of 176,300 cubic metres each, and be capable of passing through the Panama Canal, powered by ME-GI engines.
The deal is an extension of Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers (KNOT) a joint venture of NYK and Knutsen’s entity TS Shipping Invest AS (TSSI) set up in 2010 to manage a large oil shuttle tanker fleet.
The venture’s creation followed NYK's acquisition of 50 per cent of the shuttle tanker fleet, and today the world’s second largest.
GDF Suez may ship from
US Cameron LNG
Japanese utility company Tohoku has bought Cameron LNG volumes from French gas supplier GDF Suez under a sale and purchase Heads of Agreement for 270,000 tonnes per annum of LNG, to start in 2018 and last for 20 years.
The deal means GDF Suez will be one of the first companies to supply Asia with American LNG, thanks to its LNG carrier fleet and diversified portolio, it said. GDF Suez did not respond to enquiries regarding what company would do the shipping.
GDF Suez controls a fleet of 14 LNG carriers under mid and long term charter agreements, capable of providing shipping for both long- and short-term charters.
The Cameron LNG project operated by GDF Suez, American holding company Sempra, Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi and trading conglomorate Mitsui has received conditional approvals from the American financial and energy regaultory bodies US Department of Energy (DOE) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), likely to be
sanctioned within the course of this year, said GDF Suez.
Golar LNG chair strikes offshore in Arctic
North Atlantic Drilling company, a Bermuda-based enterprise majority owned by billionaire John Fredriksen, chairman of shipping company Golar LNG, has signed a deal to supply offshore rigs to Russian major Rosneft off the Siberian arctic coast.
The rigs are for Rosneft’s joint venture with Exxon in the Arctic Kara Sea. The two companies also have a US $300 million Siberian shale gas project starting this year that will produce LNG for export, reports Bloomberg.
Rosneft will have a majority interest in the nine offshore rigs it is hiring for 35 years. While US sanctions are in place against Rosneft’s CEO Igor Sechin, Seadrill’s Chief Financial Officer said they pose no challenges.