In International Shipping News 02/06/2015
French oil major Total SA (TOT) is putting together a fleet of liquefied natural gas ships to deliver the gas it will extract to plants around the world, Laurent Vivier, Total’s director for gas activities, said Monday.
The company will order 12 standard liquefied natural gas ships to handle the gas it will extract in the projects under way in Australia and elsewhere. Each of these ships are worth between $200 million and $250 million, Mr. Vivier said.
Each of these ships are worth between $200 million and $250 million, Mr. Vivier said.
Korean shipyards owned by Samsung will deliver the ships to the oil company by 2017, he said.
Additionally, the $27 billion Yamal gas project being developed in northern Russia by Total and Russian partner Novatek (NVTK.MZ) will require 16 ice-breaking LNG ships, he said.
The project includes a LNG plant that will process and export gas for which it will need special ships with ice-breaking hulls to trade the gas year-round, Mr. Vivier said.
The gas extracted in the project will mainly be exported to Asia through the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska.
The acquisition of those tankers comes as the natural gas transportation is likely to boom in the coming years, Mr. Vivier said. The demand for gas, a cleaner energy source than oil and coal, will only go up as more fields and processing facilities start operating.
“LNG shipping is extremely flexbile,” he said. “Half of the gas shipments are going to other places than meant when the plants were designed.”
