Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 9 -- Tangguh Production Sharing Contractors, a consortium led by BP Berau, awarded contracts to three carrier groups to provide seven vessels to transport LNG from Indonesia's Tangguh project.
The BP consortium awarded the contracts to Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line); Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK); and Teekay Shipping Corp.
Three South Korean shipbuilders will manufacture the vessels. The charters are to begin in late 2008 and early 2009. The vessels will transport LNG to South Korea and Mexico.
K-Line will provide three 153,000 cu m carriers to be built by Samsung Heavy Industries.
NYK will supply two 145,000 cu m carriers to be built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Teekay will provide two 155,000 cu m vessels to be constructed by Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd.
BP Berau is a unit of BP PLC, which leads a consortium of Tangguh project stakeholders.
