On August 17, a naming ceremony was held at the Geoje Island shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries , Ltd. in Korea for two LNG vessels being built for joint owners NYK LNG (Atlantic) Ltd. (headquarters: London, UK), a wholly owned subsidiary of NYK; Mitsui & Co. Ltd. (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo); and Teekay Corporation (headquarters: Vancouver, Canada) to ship LNG. The vessels are chartered by Angola LNG Supply Services (ALSS; headquarters: Houston, U.S) and will ship the LNG produced by Angola LNG Ltd.
H.E José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, petroleum minister of the Republic of Angola; Ichizo Kobayashi, managing officer and COO of the Marine & Aerospace Business Unit at Mitsui; David Glendinning, president of Teekay Gas Services; In-Sik Roh, president and CEO of Samsung; and NYK representative director and senior managing corporate officer Masahiro Kato were in attendance. Mr. Kobayashi’s wife named one vessel Soyo, and the other vessel was named Malanje by Mr. Glendinning’s wife before the ceremonial rope holding the vessels in place was cut by the two women and Mr. Kato’s wife.
Soyo and Malanje are jointly owned by NYK LNG (Atlantic) (33%), Mitsui (34%), and Teekay (33%). Soyo will be completed by August 30, and Malanje by September 30. The vessels are the first and second of four sister vessels, and the remaining two sisters are currently being built at the Geoje Island shipyard. These four vessels will be used for shipments of LNG from Angola to the global market under 20-year time charters.
More attention is being given to clean-energy LNG in response to growing environmental concerns, and the NYK Group continues to provide services that meet the expanding demand for stable, economical transport of LNG.
Vessel Particulars
Cargo capacity – 160,276.4 m3
Length overall – 285.00 meters
Breadth – 43.40 meters
Gross tonnage – 100,800 tons
Shipyard – Geoje Island shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries
[mappress] Source: NYK, August 24, 2011.