Another Major Milestone in the life of
Nakilat
Qatar,
August
25,
2007
On August 23, 2007, another major milestone
in the life of Qatar Gas Transport Company
(Nakilat) was realized. The keel-laying
ceremony for the first Q-Max vessel, a
266,000 m3 LNG carrier, took place at the
shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries in
Korea. Keel-laying is one of the key stages
in the construction of a vessel, which sees
the commencement of the block assembly
process that will eventually lead to a
completed hull. This particular vessel will
be the first 100% wholly owned vessel to be
delivered to Nakilat and will be the largest
LNG carrier ever built at the time of her
scheduled delivery in August 2008.
To transport the LNG for Qatargas II (a
2-train LNG project expected to deliver 15
million tones of LNG per annum, 8 Q-Flex
vessels (for Train 4) and 6 Q-Max vessels
(for Train 5) are being built in Korean
shipyards. The 8 Q-Flex vessels will be
jointly owned between Nakilat and a number
of other international shipowners. All of
the Q-Max vessels for Train 5 will be wholly
owned by Nakilat, keeping on track Nakilat’s
intention of becoming the largest LNG ship
owning company in the world.
These state of the art vessels have
incorporated design features not previously
associated with LNG carriers, such as twin
slow speed diesel engines with twin
propeller and dual rudder systems, as well
as a reliquefaction plant to liquefy the
boil off gas and return it to the cargo
tanks. They will also be the first LNG
vessels to incorporate ‘clean agent’ fire
fighting systems in all machinery spaces
including switchboard rooms adjacent to
public places on board, replacing CO2 as a
fire fighting medium. All the critical
machinery on board has been duplicated,
making these ships amongst the safest and
most reliable LNG vessels ever built.
Upon the completion of its current
shipbuilding program (scheduled for early
2010), Nakilat will have taken delivery of
some 25 wholly owned vessels, consisting of
14 Q-Max vessels and 11 Q-Flex vessels. In
addition to the Qatargas II project, these
vessels will be used to transport LNG for
the Qatargas 3 (Train 6), Qatargas 4 (Train
7) and RasGas III (Train 7) projects.
Nakilat also has equity interests (ranging
from 20% to 60%) in a further 29 LNG
carriers (inclusive of the eight Q-Flex
vessels to be used in the Qatargas II
project).
Throughout this construction program, great
emphasis is placed on the safety of
personnel. The Incident and Injury Free
philosophy is one which unites all the
parties involved in the Qatargas and RasGas
projects, including Nakilat, the other
shipowners and the shipbuilders. Only by
constantly striving to remain incident free
and ensure that all personnel working on the
projects return home safely to their
families every day, can the program be
considered a complete success. The aim is to
assist all the contractors and suppliers to
commit to the highest SHE & Quality
principles and establish such programs in
their activities to meet these high
standards.
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