Petronet LNG (PLL) awarded the $700 million chartering contract for an LNG vessel to the Mitsui-led consortium of Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), NYK and SK Lines.

This 25 year contract is for carrying 2.5 million tpa of LNG from RasGas of Qatar to PLL's LNG re-gasification terminal at Dahej in Gujarat.

Bids for the contract were opened on 24 December 2005, where the Mitsui-led consortium emerged as the lowest bidder, outbidding the Exmar Marine led consortium of Varun Shipping and other consortium of Teekay Shipping and GE Shipping. The award of contract has also been approved by the PLL board.

The Mitsui OSK-SCI consortia will have to deploy one LNG vessel as part of the transportation contract. PLL has already chartered two LNG vessels for carrying five million tpa of LNG from Qatar to Dahej. The company has recently decided to expand the capacity of its Dahej LNG terminal to 10 million tpa and has tied up imports of another 2.5 million tpa LNG from RasGas, from April 2009.

It is for this 2.5 million tpa tranche of LNG that it has awarded the LNG contract to the Mitsui-SCI consortia.

Also See:

Petronet LNG seeks fresh bids for LNG transportation (12-Dec-05)