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Qatar Gas Transport Company, Nakilat, is looking to expand investments both within the country and abroad by further increasing its fleet of LNG carriers and raising stake in Greece’s Maran Gas, a senior official has said.
Nakilat’s current investments are to the tune of QR54.6bn.
Nakilat, a listed shipping company established by Qatar to own, operate and manage LNG vessels and to provide shipping and marine-related services to a range of participants within the Qatari hydrocarbon sector, will have a fleet of 58 carriers by the end of this year.
Managing director Abdullah Fadhalah al-Sulaiti told Qatar News Agency (QNA) that Nakilat intended to increase its fleet of LNG carriers and the company was already holding talks with a number of European and Asian countries.
He noted that part of that strategy was increasing the company’s stake in Greece’s Maran Gas. Nakilat has increased its stake by 10% to 40%. The new four carriers will take the company’s fleet strength 58.
Al-Sulaiti said that Maran Gas fleet served production inside Qatar as well as outside it. He added that the four new carriers costing $900mn would be delivered in 2014.
He said Nakilat was looking to expand the LNG delivering operations by buying stakes in companies like Maran Gas.
“The LNG global market is at a promising phase, something that encourages Nakilat to look for investment opportunities outside Qatar in order to achieve more added value to the company and its shareholders.”
On the possibility of increasing its stake at Maran further, the managing director said that Nakilat was studying all possible investment plans, including increasing its stake at Maran.
He maintained, however, that there was no plan finalised in this regard at the moment.
Al-Sulaiti said the company welcomed any investment that would bring profit but the company’s focus at the moment was mainly on the activity of gas shipping , “which we are seeking to expand”.
According to him, gas production and gas shipping are witnessing a significant growth, something, which encourages many gas production facilities to hire ships to transport gas to various points worldwide.
On the Nakilat’s shipyard operations, the managing director said that there were two more phases remaining before completing the new state-of-the-art dry dock.
“Phase 2 involves preparing a floating dock for the Q-Max vessels. This phase will end in 2015. Another phase, which involves the production and maintenance of FRP vessels, is the process of architectural designs and will be completed in two and a half to three years.”
Al-Sulaiti said the dry dock provided maintenance to 200 vessels last year. It also hosted the construction of 10 new vessels. Some nine new vessels will be constructed this year as well. All of the 19 vessels will go to the Mesaieed Port.
“Other deals include an agreement with Ras Laffan to construct seven vessels in the dry dock. There is another agreement to build a 72-metre yacht. All these agreements were struck at a time when the dock was working at half of its operational capacity. The total number of signed agreements will see 18 vessels constructed at the dry dock.”
Regarding plans to increase the number of workers at the dry dock, al-Sulaiti said that would depend on the operational capacity of the work as well as the volume of work required.
Nakilat currently employs more than 3,500 workers.
