LNG

Qatar Gas Transport Company, known as Nakilat and a global leader in liquefied natural gas shipping that is expanding its fleet to 80 ships through 2027, reported a more than 8 percent jump in annual net profits.

Qatar Gas Transport Company, known as Nakilat and with a liquefied natural gas fleet of 69 vessels, reported a jump in net profits as the company’s ships satisfied rising global demand.

QatarEnergy, the world’s leading liquefied natural gas company, reported a 58 percent jump in annual net profits after demand for cargoes soared along with prices as European countries tried to replace halted Russian pipeline gas supplies with LNG.

QatarEnergy’s net profits came to 154.6 billion Qatari riyals ($42.2Bln) in 2022 compared with 97.9Bln riyals ($26.7Bln) in 2021.

The Doha-based company reported a surge in revenues to almost 189Bln riyals ($51.56Bln) in the 12 months to the end of December, which was 57 percent higher than the 120.3Bln riyals logged in 2021.

QatarEnergy’s deliveries are a mixture of long-term contracts and the sale of spot cargoes with prices for such shipments soaring five-fold to $50 per million British thermal units in mid-2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine compared with the mid-2021 prices of under $10 per MMBtu.

Matching majors

By way of comparison QatarEnergy’s earnings are on a par with the largest global oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil Corp. and Shell plc who reported record profits last year of $56Bln and $40Bln respectively.

QatarEnergy’s performance was only bettered by the Middle East regional giant, Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil-producer based in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco’s annual net income in 2022 came to $161.1Bln on stronger crude oil prices and higher volumes sold and this was almost four times higher than QatarEnergy’s profit and those of the leading global energy majors.

Aramco’s net income was 46.5 percent higher than in 2021 when $110.0Bln was posted and was well above the $49.1Bln reported in 2020.

While Saudi Aramco profits outpaced the LNG producer’s, QatarEnergy is set to increase annual income in the years ahead from an expansion programme to boost production.

Qatar is currently developing two LNG expansion project, the North Field South (NFS) joint venture and the NFE venture in partnerships with international energy majors and when completed will take Qatar's output from 77 million tonnes per annum to 126 MTPA.

The two Qatari LNG expansions involve feed-gas developments in the prolific North Field in the Arabian Gulf and the construction of an additional six mega-Trains each with 8 MTPA of output.

The NFS venture will have two mega-Trains while the NFE project will have four of the mega-Trains processing the Gulf gas for export.

Qatar Gas Transport Company, known as Nakilat and with a liquefied natural gas LNG fleet of 69 vessels, has posted a 3.6 percent increase in first-quarter 2023 net profits.

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, the Japanese shipping company known as NYK Line, increased fiscal first-half profits and revenues from shipping liquefied natural gas and other fuels worldwide as it also ordered five new LNG carriers to add to its fleet of 58 owned and co-owned LNG vessels.

NYK’s revenues soared by 30 percent for the six months from April to the end of September 2022 and amounted to 1.36 trillion Japanese yen ($9.31 billion) compared with 1.05 trillion yen ($7.16Bln) in the fiscal first-half of 2021.

Profits jumped by 71 percent and came to 706.06Bln ($4.81Bln) versus 411.32Bln yen ($2.80Bln) in the same six months of last year.

NYK said the profits grew even as bunkered fuel costs for its fleet of ships jumped by 76 percent year-on-year to average $839.95 per ton versus $477.42 per ton in the same six months of 2021.

The NYK LNG carriers are in the energy fleet of the company’s Bulk Shipping division.

The company’s fleet comprises 658 owned and co-owned vessels, including in the largest sector 382 bulk carriers, 113 energy tankers and associated vessels, 108 car carriers and 55 containerships.

Contracts

“In the LNG carriers unit, the results were steady based on support from the long-term contracts that generate stable earnings. Also, in the offshore business, FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading), drill ship and shuttle tankers were generally steady as expected,” said NYK.

Overall Bulk Shipping revenues came to 616.4 billion yen ($4.20Bln) in the six-month period.

In the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market, NYK said that there was a further rebounded off market lows from July. Then, after oil prices fell in mid-August following the release from the strategic petroleum reserve in the United States, shipments of oil from the Middle East and US in particular rose to destinations in Europe and Asia.

“Due in part to this, the use of VLCCs increased, causing supply-and- demand conditions to tighten and the market to rapidly recover. Thereafter, the higher shipment volumes continued into September,” explained NYK.

“In the petrochemical tanker market, due to the impact of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, the origin of shipments bound for Europe shifted from Russia to the United States, Middle East and India, resulting in longer sailing distances,” the company added.

NYK also said that a consortium it is part of had signed a long-term time-charter contract with QatarEnergy for five LNG carriers for delivery between 2025 and 2026 for Qatar's expansion of LNG production.

The partners of NYK in the newbuilds contract are Malaysian shipping company MISC Group and China LNG Shipping.

Shanghai yard

The joint-venture companies have executed shipbuilding contracts for the five vessels with 174,000 cubic metres capacity with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding of Shanghai.

“Over the past 39 years since the delivery of the LNG carrier ‘Echigo Maru’ in 1983, NYK has continued to enhance its LNG safety and expertise and worldwide LNG transport network,” said the company.

“The skills that NYK has acquired in safe and optimized navigation, the construction of LNG carriers, and high-level ship-management quality have earned high regard from QatarEnergy, leading to the successful conclusion of this contract,” declared the Chiyoda City-based shipping line.

“NYK and QatarEnergy have had a long-term relationship with several existing projects and the relationship will be further extended through this contract,” it added.

NYK said these five vessels will be equipped with the latest propulsion in the X-DF 2.1 iCER engines designed by Winterthur Gas & Diesel (WinGD), headquartered in Switzerland.

The X-DF low-speed, dual-fuel engines use gas admitted at low pressure and will reduce emissions and increase fuel efficiency.

The company added that the five LNG newbuilds will be around 299 metres in length with a moulded breadth of 46.40M and with speed capability of 19.5 knots.

The German Federal Ministry of Economics has rejected claims that the natural gas reserves for the coming winter were bought at too high a price as the nation prepares to become an LNG importer with expectations of the first facility coming on stream in 2023.

April 13 (LNGJ) - QatarEnergy signed a series of time-charter parties with a subsidiary of Japanese shipping company Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) for the long-term charter and operation of four LNG carriers, constituting the first batch of TCPs awarded under QatarEnergy’s huge LNG shipping-building programme.

   “Concurrent with the signing of the TCPs, back-to-back LNG carrier shipbuilding contracts were signed between MOL and Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp., for the construction of four new LNG carriers to serve Qatar’s LNG growth projects and future fleet requirements,” said the Doha-based company.

Oct 22 (LNGJ) - The 206,950 cubic metres capacity Q-Flex LNG carrier, the “Al-Aamrya”, is scheduled to deliver a cargo on October 29 to the UK South Hook import terminal at Milford Haven in Wales from the Ras Laffan plant in Qatar. The shipment was heading for UK shores as the nation’s National Balancing Point (NBP) benchmark natural gas price was last at around $30.55 per million British thermal units.

July 16 (LNGJ) - Qatar Gas Transport Co., the fleet operator for Qatargas, posted a 15.5 percent increase in first-half net profit to 550 million Qatari riyals ($151M), up from the 476M riyals ($131M) recorded in the same six months last year. Additional revenues came from the strategic acquisition of the remaining 49.9 percent stakes in four Q-Flex LNG vessels in October 2019 by QGTC, also known as Nakilat. First-half revenues came to 2.02 billion riyal ($555.2M), an increase of 11.3 percent.

   “In these uncertain times, Nakilat remains committed in delivering value for our shareholders as we expand our international reach to meet the growing demand for energy transportation,” said Chief Executive Abdullah Al Sulaiti. “The company’s sustained financial performance bears testament to our ongoing strategy of enhancing efficiency, rationalizing expenditures and reducing operational and administrative costs,” added Al Sulaiti.

Qatar Gas Transport Co., the Gulf nation’s shipping company, posted annual revenues of over US$1 billion as it acquired several more ships for the Gulf LNG exporting nation.