Qatar to double the size of its fleet for liquified gas products

The Qatar Gas Transport Company, better known as Nakilat, is on course to become the owner of the world’s largest and most modern fleet of liquid natural gas (LNG) carriers, with its existing fleet to be more than doubled. In early 2007, Faisal al-Suwaidi, Nakilat’s vice president, announced the company planned to have a fleet of 60 vessels by 2010, 46 of them being LNG carriers and the remainder for transporting liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The program foresees Nakilat owning 28 of the 60 tankers outright and having an average stake of 54% in the other ships. The entire acquisition has been valued at $15 billion, with Nakilat’s input being $11.5 billion. According to al-Suwaidi, initial plans to limit the company’s ownership levels in the new vessels to between 30% and 60% had been scrapped in order to maximize shareholders’ returns. Last year, Qatar has announced plans to become the