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Home Green Marine France: NYK Signs Time-charter Contract with GDF Suez for LNG Carrier Grace Acacia

France: NYK Signs Time-charter Contract with GDF Suez for LNG Carrier Grace Acacia

June 17, 2011

 

NYK has signed a time charter-party with French multinational energy company GDF Suez for the LNG carrier Grace Acacia (100,341 gross tons), for a four-year period starting from summer 2012.

Grace Acacia is co-owned by NYK Line and Mitsui & Co. Ltd. and was delivered from Hyundai in 2007. The vessel is equipped with a Mark III GTT cargo containment and has a capacity of 149,700 m3. Grace Acacia was selected following a call for tenders on 19 April and will help fulfill GDF Suez’s medium-term LNG trading needs.

On 16 June, a signing ceremony was held at GDF Suez’s headquarters in Paris, France, and attended by Jean-Marie Dauger, executive vice-president in charge of the Global Gas & LNG Business Line of GDF Suez; Hitoshi Nagasawa, a managing corporate officer at NYK; and Nobuyuki Kobayashi, general manager of Mitsui & Co.’s Ship & Marine Project Div. II.

This charter agreement reinforces the partnership between GDF Suez and NYK Line as it comes in addition to existing fields of cooperation: co-ownership of the LNG carrier Gaselys (60% NYK Line, 40% GDF Suez), co-ownership of the ship-management company Gazocean (80% GDF Suez, 20% NYK Line), and chartering for a six-year period of Grace Cosmos, a sister-ship of Grace Acacia.

GDF Suez

GDF Suez is the third largest LNG importer in the world and has a diversified portfolio of LNG supplies from six different countries, representing 16.5 MTPA. GDF Suez is one of the leading LNG players in the world and the main LNG importer in Europe. The company controls a fleet of 18 LNG carriers, representing a total capacity 2.33 million m3 of LNG and has a significant presence in regasification terminals around the world.

Time-charter contract

A time-charter contract is a form of contract concluded between a user and the owner of a carrier under which, by paying the charter fee to the owner, the user charters the carrier for the period of time specified in the contract.

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Source: NYK, June 17, 2011; Image: Oct 30, 2008.