Sinotrans, Dynagas and CLNG agree Yamal LNG deal

One of China’s largest shipping companies, Sinotrans said it signed deals on Monday with Dynagas and CLNG for the construction of five LNG carriers for Russia’s Yamal project.

Sinotrans announced in September it was in talks to take part in a joint venture to commission the building of five Arctic LNG carriers.

The Chinese company informed in a statement it entered into a series of agreements with Dynagas and CLNG for the formation of five joint ventures, “each of which is party to a shipbuilding contract and party to a time charter in respect of an Arctic LNG carrier.”

Completion of the joint venture took place on the same day as the signing of the agreements, Sinotrans said.

Sinotrans, a subsidiary of state-owned Sinotrans & CSC Holdings will take a 25.5 percent share of the joint venture. China Merchants’ unit, China LNG Shipping will also own a 25.5 stake in the JV, while Athens-based LNG shipper Dynagas will take a 49 percent stake.

Construction of the vessels was commissioned by Yamal project pursuant to the shipbuilding contracts with DSME and DY Shipping Limited signed in December 2014, according to the statement.

The total consideration for the construction of the 172,410 cbm Arctic LNG vessels is approximately US$1.59 billion.

The expected delivery dates for each of the carriers are “on or before 30 November 2017, 31 December 2017, 31 January 2019, 28 February 2019 and 31 March 2019.”

Each JV company entered into one time charter with Yamal, whereby the company will lease the vessel to Yamal for a term commencing from the delivery of the vessels until December 2045, the statement said.

Under the time charter deals, the JV companies will receive about US$19.2 million per month as charterhire.

The carriers will serve the Novatek-operated Yamal LNG project in the Arctic. Yamal LNG includes the construction of a liquefaction plant with annual capacity of 16.5 million tons per annum based on the feedstock resources of the South-Tambeyskoye field.

The production from the liquefaction and export project is scheduled to start in 2017.

LNG World News Staff