GAIL India Hires LNG Carrier from Total

India’s gas utility company GAIL has chartered in an LNG tanker from French oil and gas company Total SA to transport gas from the US.

According to a company official, cited by the Economic Times, the ship is being chartered for a period of three years and the company has an option to extend the time-charter for an additional year.

The charter is set to start next year.

As disclosed, Total was selected out of 30 rivals as it had offered the lowest daily rate of USD 44,900 for a 165,000 cbm ship it had hired from Teekay for an LNG project in Yemen.

Specifically, Teekay’s two LNG carriers, the Marib Spirit and Arwa Spirit, were put on long-term charters expiring in 2029 to the Yemen LNG project (YLNG), a consortium led by Total.

However, as the project was terminated in 2015 due to the political situation in the country, Total decided to find work for the vessel elsewhere.

The bids for chartering in LNG vessels were invited via Shipping Corporation of India.

The bids were called after Gail decided to scrap its tender to hire nine newly-built LNG vessels which were supposed to carry LNG cargoes from the US at the end of 2016.

Under the tender, three ships out of the nine planned had been set to be built in India to boost Indian shipbuilding capabilities.

GAIL ended up scrapping the tender due to a lack of qualified bidders, for which reason it opted to charter in LNG vessels under three- to four-year charter deals.

World Maritime News Staff