Minister Pradhan seeks help from Korean Ambassador on Gail’s LNG ships tender

Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan met with the Ambassador of Republic of Korea Joon-gyu Lee.

The meeting was held to apprise the Ambassador of Gail’s requirement for charter hiring of 9 LNG ships for transporting LNG from USA which is necessary for meeting energy requirements of the country. The delivery of LNG would start from December, 2017.

A Global tender has been floated by Gail for hiring of 9 LNG Ships in 3 lots of 3 ships. There is a mandatory provision in the tender of building 1 ship in each lot in partnership with Indian shipyards. The tender has already been extended twice and it needs to be finalized and awarded by May, 2015 to start supplies from December 2017, reveals a statement by India’s Ministry of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas.

Four Korean Shipyards qualify for Gail’s tender requirements namely: Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Ship Building and Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding. Three Indian shipyards are interested in the project, however there is need for collaboration with Korean shipyards. Korean shipyards have cited government restrictions in technology transfer. One of the restrictions cited is that technology of LNG ship design and construction has been registered as Korea’s National Core Technology and is handled at the national level and controlled by Korean Government Authority.

It was impressed upon the Ambassador, that Gail’s tender, is at present globally one of the largest tenders. Also this was a very good opportunity for the Korean shipbuilders to expand their business to India. Korean Government intervention in sorting out the technology transference hindrance would greatly help in collaboration between the Indian and Korean shipyards.

The ambassador promised to report the matter to his government to find a solution to the issue at the earliest.

[mappress mapid=”16180″]

Press Release; Image: Ministry of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas