The LNG tankers Rex Tillerson and Umm Ghuwailina at their launch ceremony at Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard

 Following on from the news from the Gulf that Oman’s Asyad Shipping is expanding its fleet by acquiring a further 30 ships, QatarEnergy is now seeing the first deliveries of what will be a fleet of 128 new vessels by 2030.

QatarEnergy has said that its reinforced fleet will be a "floating pipeline," carrying a continual flow of LNG from Qatar’s expanding gas fields, mostly to Asia on tankers on long-term charters. The expansion will also cater to the shipping needs of QatarEnergy’s North Golden Pass LNG Terminal at Sabine Pass in Texas.

Though the Qatari firm orchestrated the newbuild program and negotiated with shipyards to reserve space for construction, the tankers were purchased by top global shipowners (or joint ventures) to charter to QatarEnergy on a long-term basis. The list of companies selected to buy and operate tonnage for QatarEnergy includes China Merchants Group, Shandong Marine Group, China LNG Shipping, Mitsui OSK, COSCO, Shandong Marine Energy, MISC Berhad, K-Line and Hyundai Glovis.

The new QatarEnergy LNG tankers, a mix of QC-Max and Q-Flex LNG vessels, are being built in China and South Korea. 43 of the vessels will be chartered-in by affiliate QatarEnergy Trading, to transport the portion of Qatar’s gas exports that are not covered by long-term supply contracts. This will reinforce its aspirations to become a leading global LNG trader.

The largest shipowner in the newbuild program is Nakilat, formally titled the Qatar Gas Transport Company Limited (QPSC). Nakilat is a publically-quoted company headquartered in Doha, whose shareholdings are dominated by the Qatari state and members of the royal family, but which also includes a broad spectrum of Qatari institutional as well as private shareholders. Qatari shareholders and pension funds hold about 40% of the company. With a targeted annual dividend yield of 5%, this means that a cross-section of Qatari society is benefitting from Nakilat and Qatari gas earnings, and which by sharing out wealth and prosperity also has a political stability dividend. It is a model being replicated in Oman, where Asyad plans to float an initial 20% of its shares via an IPO on the local Muscat Securities Market, with a block of shares reserved for Omani institutional and private investors.

Nakilat also operates the floating storage regasification unit FSRU Exquisite, stationed in a channel of the Indus River east of Karachi. It also owns the specialist Erhama Bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard at Ras Laffan, and is tied into Milaha, the Qatari logistics company, via a shareholding.