Qatar’s Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co III (RasGas III) signed 20-year charter deals for 12 vessels to deliver liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the US.

The ships will be delivered to RasGas between March and August 2008 and will have an LNG cargo capacity of  210,000-217,000 cubic metres each, RasGas said.
“Under the terms of the time charter agreements, RasGas will charter the vessels for a period of 20 years to deliver LNG from the 7.8 million tonnes per year Train 6 into a purpose built terminal in the US Gulf Coast,” it said.
The charter agreements were signed with JC Nakilat for eight vessels and with Teekay Nakilat for four vessels.
The ships will be built at the shipyards of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co, Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries.
RasGas III, set up to run a major gas field expansion, is a joint venture between state-run Qatar Petroleum (QP) and US oil major ExxonMobil, which has a 30 per cent stake.
At the same signing ceremony in Doha, Qatar Gas Transport Co – the shipping firm of QP – signed joint venture agreements with JC Nakilat and Teekay Nakilat giving it equity ownership of between 40 per cent to 60 per cent in the new ships.
Qatar is expected to supply around 77 million tonnes of LNG to world markets by 2012.