Japan's Inpex signed Tuesday shipbuilding and shipping contracts for two new LNG tankers, which will deliver cargoes to its new Naoetsu import terminal as well as to Taiwan's CPC from the Ichthys project in northern Australia, a company official said.
As part of the deals, Inpex will effectively have its first LNG vessel through Ocean Breeze LNG Transport, a 30:70 joint venture between Inpex Shipping, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the largest Japanese upstream company, and Japanese shipping company Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, or "K" Line, the official said.
The 155,300 cubic meters tanker will be built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and be in operation by the end of 2016, when the Ichthys project is scheduled to start up, the official said.
The new tanker will be devoted to offtake 900,000 mt/year of LNG from the Ichthys project to deliver cargoes at its new Naoetsu import terminal in northwest Japan, the official said.
Inpex chairman Naoki Kuroda told Platts in March that the company plans to take its first commissioning LNG cargo for its new Naoetsu import terminal by the end of August.
The company is currently "examining details" of potential term LNG supplies for the three years covering the gap between the scheduled startup of the import terminal and first LNG from Ichthys, Kuroda said then.
Earlier, Inpex had planned to start up the Naoetsu import terminal in 2014 with an import capacity of around 1.5 million mt/year.
Separately, Inpex Shipping and a Total subsidiary also signed Tuesday a time-charter deal with "K" Line for delivering 1.75 million mt/year of Ichthys LNG to Taiwan's CPC on a new 182,000 cubic meter vessel based on a sales and purchase agreement, Inpex said.
Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries is building the new tanker, at its Sakaide plant in western Japan, which is scheduled to be in operation by the end of 2016, Inpex said.
Inpex holds 66.07% of the Ichthys project, with French major Total owning 30%.
The project's LNG lifters have taken a combined 3.9% stake in Ichthys, held by Japan's Tokyo Gas (1.575%), Osaka Gas (1.2%), Chubu Electric (0.735%) and Toho Gas (0.42%).
The Ichthys project is scheduled to start by the end of 2016. The two-train liquefaction facility will have the capacity to produce 8.4 million mt/year of LNG, 1.6 million mt/year of LPG, and around 100,000 b/d of condensate at its peak.
