Report: GAIL looking to charter carriers for US LNG delivery

India’s gas utility GAIL will charter carriers on short-term contracts to transport liquefied natural gas from the United States to India. 

The move, revealed by India’s minister for petroleum and natural gas, Dharmendra Pradhan, comes after the company was forced to scrap its tender for hiring newbuilds. The tender was canceled in October last year as major shipbuilder declined to build a third of the vessels in India.

Pradhan added that the bids submitted by the interested shipyards contained deviations, Press Trust of India reports.

GAIL reportedly received two bids from two separate consortia, one comprising Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) and Mitsui and the other comprising Mitsubishi Corporation, Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) and GasLog.

Under the original tender, nine vessels, three of which had to be built by shipyards in India, were expected to be delivered by 2019, for foreign shipyards and 2023, for Indian shipyards.

Deliveries of liquefied natural gas GAIL contracted in the United States is scheduled to begin in January 2018.

LNG World News Staff