Nakilat Finalizes 4.3-Billion Funding Package for the Purchase of 16 Methane Tankers

摘要

Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat)announced on 20 December that its wholly-owned subsidiary,Nakilat Inc.,had finalized an initial 4.3-billion tranche of credits.The funds will be used to finance the purchase of 16 methane tankers ordered from South Korean shipyards which are scheduled for delivery in 2008 and 2009 (AOG,16 Nov.,2006).Long-term time charter contracts have already been concluded for these methane tankers with Qatargas II (QG-II)and QG-III.They will be operated by Shell International Trading and Shipping Company (Stasco),part of the Royal Dutch Shell group,under the terms of a 25-year contract (AOG,1 Dec,2006),together with 11 others that have already been ordered,or are going to be.The latter will be chartered to RasGas-3 and QG-4.A second 3.3-billion tranche of credits is due to be raised to finance these ships.