GAIL signs long-term charter contract with K-Line for LNG ship

State gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd on Friday signed an agreement with Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd for long-term charter hire of a newly built LNG ship.

The pact was signed through the ship-owning company established in Singapore, GAIL said in a statement.

The LNG ship will be a modern two-stroke vessel having a tank capacity of 1,74,000 cubic metres and will be built by Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd, Korea, with which the ship owning company has concluded a shipbuilding contract.

The contract was signed in the presence of R K Jain, GAIL Director (Finance), Sanjay Kumar, GAIL Director (Marketing), and R K Singhal, GAIL Director (Business Development) by S Bairagi, GAIL Executive Director (Marketing - Shipping & International LNG) and Satoshi Kanamori, Managing Executive Officer (LNG, Carbon Solution Business), K-Line.

"This is the first long-term time charter contract between GAIL and K-Line involving a newly built vessel which is expected to be engaged in transportation of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) for GAIL in 2027," it said.

GAIL has four LNG vessels -- GAIL Bhuwan, GAIL Urja, Grace Emilia, and Maran Gas Pericles, to transport natural gas in a super cooled form.

Two more ships are expected to join the fleet next year, including one newly built vessel on long-term charter.

GAIL has a diversified sourcing portfolio for over 15 million tonnes a year of LNG that includes supply sources from various geographies.

The company's LNG fleet is deployed to lift volumes contracted on free on board (FOB) basis primarily from the North American region and is transported to meet the domestic demand as well as international customers.