Qatargas Names its Q-flex Ships

Qatargas has named the first two Q-Flex LNG vessels - Al Ruwais and Al Safliya - at a ceremony held at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Ltd. (DSME) ship building yard in Geoje Island. The ceremony which was presided over by His Excellency Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Energy and Industry and Mr. Neil Duffin, President of ExxonMobil Development Co. officially named the two ships which are the first of 45 large LNG ships to be delivered for Qatar.

The Al Ruwais and Al Safliya will be used to ship LNG produced in Qatargas 2, Train 4 to customers in Europe. They are the first of 14 ships that are being built in Korea to service Qatargas Trains 4 and 5. The Q-Flex vessels have a capacity approximately 50 percent larger than conventional vessels.

The Q-Flex and the even larger Q-Max are a new generation of LNG mega-ship with about 40 percent lower energy requirements and carbon emissions than conventional vessels due to the economies of scale created by their size the efficiency of the engines. Qatargas will charter the ships from Nakilat, with the ships being owned by a consortium of Nakilat, Pronav and German investment companies. Qatargas 2's shareholders are Qatar Petroleum, ExxonMobil and Total.