By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Sept. 9 -- TotalFinaElf SA unit TotalFinaElf Exploration Norge has awarded a contract to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to build a 145,000 cu m LNG carrier that will carry LNG from the Snøhvit gas project in northern Norway to the French company's customers in Europe and the US. TotalFinaElf will lease the tanker, which is slated for delivery in January 2006, from co-owners Leif Hoegh & Co. ASA and Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd.
"The contracting of this shipping capacity reinforces TotalFinaElf's decision to market its own share of the LNG produced by the Snøhvit gas project" off Norway, the French company said. TotalFinaElf holds an 18.4% equity interest in the Snøhvit project, which is operated by Norway's Statoil ASA.
Once completed, Snøhvit—the world's northernmost LNG project—will export 4.2 million tonnes/year of LNG, Statoil said.
