State-owned GAIL (India) Ltd, India’s biggest gas utility, has signed a contract with a wholly owned unit of Japan’s Mitsui O. S. K. Lines Ltd (MOL) to time charter a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier and has taken stake in an existing LNG carrier.
The new LNG carrier being constructed at South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co Ltd will be the second MOL Group LNG carrier serving GAIL and is set to begin the time charter in 2023.
The two companies signed a contract for the first LNG vessel in 2019.
The existing vessel named ‘GAIL BHUWAN’ has been chartered by GAIL through a wholly owned MOL subsidiary from 2021. “MOL and GAIL reached an agreement to share the vessel by transferring a portion of a wholly owned MOL subsidiary’s shares to GAIL,” MOL said in a statement.
GAIL has contracts for procuring LNG volumes from the USA under two long term Sales and Purchase Agreements signed with US energy majors. The vessel will ship clean LNG fuel from the US Gulf Coast to India, for meeting the country’s energy requirement and to other markets globally.
By strengthening MOL and GAIL’s partnership, there will be synergies that will allow us to provide more reliable services, and this will lead us to extend our services even further against the demand that will grow in the future, MOL said.
MOL said it will strengthen its presence and business base in India, where energy demand is expected to increase. It continues to work proactively to provide high-quality LNG transport services that precisely meet customer needs by leveraging the know-how and network it has accumulated as one of the world’s largest LNG carrier ownership and management companies.
GAIL is constantly expanding its global presence through its participation in projects/ventures along the natural gas value chain. With a global LNG portfolio of around 14 MMTPA, GAIL has emerged as one of the leading global LNG players and is actively involved in the LNG trading business in the international market.
