DOHA: Nakilat, the shipping arm of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas sector, has expanded its joint venture with Greek shipping company Maran Ventures Inc. to include two new LNG vessels.
Maran Nakilat Co. Ltd. was established in 2005 with four jointly-owned vessels, and the deal has been expanded thrice.
Yesterday’s agreement increases the number of vessels jointly-owned by Nakilat and Maran Gas to 13, confirming Nakilat’s wholly and jointly-owned LNG fleet as the largest in the world.
“Maran Gas is a reputed quality operator and this move strengthens ties between both entities and the current deal allows for further expansion in the future,” said Abdullah Al Sulaiti of Nakilat.
“Nakilat’s strong financial performance has allowed us to increase our fleet size further. Selecting strong partners has been fundamental to Nakilat’s success, and our relationship with Maran continues to be reinforced since our first agreement in 2005,” he said.
The two new vessels are under construction in South Korea and, upon delivery in the third and fourth quarters of this year, will bring the total number of LNG and LPG ships partially or wholly owned by Nakilat to 67. They are tri-fuel diesel electric propulsion models with capacities of 161,870 cubic metres and 174,000 cubic metres, respectively.
“We look forward to working closely together in the future with Nakilat’s highly professional team to explore and develop opportunities in the LNG space,” said John Angelicoussis of Maran Ventures.
The Peninsula
