Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Mar. 16 -- ExxonMobil Corp. and Mitsui OSK Lines have selected Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Co., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp., to build four LNG carriers in China.
Two vessels will be used to transport LNG from ExxonMobil’s PNG-LNG project in Papua New Guinea and the other two are earmarked for Gorgon-Jansz project off Western Australia.
The vessels will be jointly owned by Mitsui and China Shipping Co. Delivery is slated for 2015-16.
They each will have a carrying capacity of 172,000 cu m of LNG.
ExxonMobil’s PNG-LNG project has already chartered two other tankers (each with 177,000 cu m capacity). When production begins there in 2015, the four carriers will keep the new terminal at Port Moresby operating around the clock with ships loading every 3-4 days.