Nakilat Takes 7th Carrier In-House

Qatar state-owned shipowner Nakilat said May 19 it has assumed full ship management and operations of Q-Flex LNG carrier Onaiza from Shell Trading and Shipping Company (Stasco) that day.  

Nakilat announced in October 2016 a programme to take in-house the ship-management of all its 14 Q-Max and 11 Q-Flex LNG carriers. Stasco had managed all Nakilat LNG carriers until that point since 2006.

Onaiza is the 7th wholly-owned LNG vessel that will come under Nakilat management, taking the total number of vessels it manages to 15 (11 LNG and 4 LPG carriers).  The latest transfer means that more than a quarter of its LNG carriers have now transferred from Stasco management.

The first LNG carrier to transition from Stasco to Nakilat was the Q-Max LNG carrier Mozah, last October. Since then Mekaines, Umm Slal, al Ghuwairiya, al Dafna, Mesaimeer and now Onaiza have transitioned.

The 210,150 m³ capacity Onaiza is wholly-owned by Nakilat and chartered by Qatargas and was built by South Korea's Daewoo (DSME) in 2009.

Mark Smedley