Rick Wilkinson
OGJ Correspondent
MELBOURNE, Mar. 5 -- Mitsui OSK Lines has signed separate deals with ExxonMobil Corp. for the construction and charter of LNG carriers earmarked for the Papua New Guinea LNG and Gorgon-Jansz LNG projects.
For PNG LNG, Mitsui will charter two existing 177,000-cu m capacity carriers co-owned by Itochu Corp.
Mitsui also entered two heads of agreement for the construction and long-term charter of four other LNG carriers for the PNG LNG and Gorgon-Jansz projects.
The vessels will be built in China with a delivery dates scheduled for 2014-16.
First LNG from both projects is expected in 2014.
The ExxonMobil-operated PNG LNG project will cost $15 billion and have a production capacity of 6.6 million tonnes/year of LNG.
The Chevron Corp.-operated Gorgon-Jansz project (in which ExxonMobil has 25%) will have a production capacity of 15 million tpy of LNG plus a 300 TJ/day gas component via a pipeline to the mainland.