Samsung Heavy Industries added another 462.3 billion won ($409.38 million) to their backlog today with the order of a pair of LNG carriers for a Joint Venture company owned by Marubeni Corporation and SK Shipping Co., Ltd.
Upon delivery in January and October 2017 respectively, both ships will be placed on 30-year charter contracts with a UK subsidiary of the French oil major, Total S.A. With a loading capacity of 180,000 m3, the ships will be the largest LNG carriers which are enabled to pass the Panama Canal after the planned expansion in 2015.
Each of the two ships will be engaged in the transportation of LNG from the separate projects: the Australian Ichthys LNG project in which some other Japanese corporations participate, and the Sabine Pass Liquefaction Project where the American shale-gas will be transformed into LNG for the first time.