Owner and operator of LNG carriers GasLog is behind the latest order at South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) for two newbuilds .
As World Maritime News reported earlier this morning, SHI has been hired to construct two 174,000 cubic meter LNG carriers with low pressure two stroke propulsion, with expected delivery in late 2020.
The newbuilding duo has been chartered by a wholly owned subsidiary of Cheniere Energy. Each vessel secured a charter for a firm period of seven years, GasLog said.
The contract is worth KRW 412.3 billion (USD 367 million), SHI said.
What is more, GasLog has agreed with Cheniere an option for the charter of one or two additional newbuild vessels.
GasLog Partners LP has the right to acquire the vessels delivered into the charters pursuant to the omnibus agreement between GasLog and GasLog Partners. As a result, GasLog Partners’ potential dropdown pipeline will increase to 11 LNG carriers with charter length of five years or longer.
“We continue to expand our fleet with highly competitive vessels backed by long term contracts, while simultaneously diversifying our customer base. We anticipate further incremental shipping capacity will be needed to supply forecast LNG demand growth, and remain confident in our ability to increase our market share at attractive returns,” Paul Wogan, Chief Executive Officer of GasLog, said.
Illustration; Image Courtesy: LNG Carriers/ Flickr-Kees Torn under CC BY-SA 2.0 license