Mitsui: And Then There Were Eight

Japanese shipping company Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has contracted the eight planned LNG carrier intended to be used for the delivery, mainly to Japanese customers, of LNG from the Cameron LNG Export Project in the U.S.A.

The company secured five ships with time charter parties in September 2014 and two charter parties were signed on January 29, 2015.

“Mitsui has newly contracted yesterday the eighth ship,  bringing the total maximum charter hire amount for the combined eight ships to approximately 700 billion Japanese yen,” Mitsui added.

The final 178,000m3 membrane type LNG ship has been chartered out from Trinity LNG Transport S.A, a  joint venture company between Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. and Mitsui.

The ship is a newbuild undergoing construction at Japanese builder Imabari Shipbuilding Co., Ltd and it has been hired on a 25 year charter period. The charter is set to start around 2020.

Cameron LNG is developing natural gas liquefaction and export facilities next to its existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) receipt terminal in Hackberry, Louisiana.

It has obtained approval from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export up to 12 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), or approximately 1.7 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day, of LNG to all Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries, and on September 2014 received final authorization to export to non-FTA countries.

The full year of commercial operation of all three trains is expected in 2019.