Japan's Marubeni plans to begin transporting LNG from the US to South Korea via a joint venture with a major South Korean shipping group, the Nikkei newspaper reported Friday.
The Japanese trading house and SK Shipping have jointly established a company that will own and manage LNG carriers, with Marubeni taking a 49% stake and the South Korean partner the remainder, the Nikkei said, citing company sources.
The joint venture company will buy two LNG carriers, to be built by South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, for a total of Yen 46 billion ($462 million), the Nikkei said. Each carrier will have a capacity of 180,000 cubic meters, about 20% larger than standard vessels, it added.
The LNG carriers will be leased to French energy giant Total for up to 30 years, the Nikkei said. The Marubeni-SK venture is to handle such tasks as fuel procurement, scheduling and maintenance, it added.
In the report, a Marubeni official was cited as saying the company was in the final stages of talks, declining to elaborate further.
South Korea has signed a free trade agreement with the US, and it already has Washington's approval to import US shale gas.
One of the two ships will carry shale gas from the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana to South Korea, starting as early as October 2017, the Nikkei said. Some 700,000 mt will be shipped annually, with state-owned Korea Gas Corp. to buy the entire amount, it added.
The other carrier will transport LNG from the Ichthys project off the northwestern coast of Australia to South Korea, the Nikkei said. Total is to supply 1.2 million mt/year to Kogas starting January 2017.
Kogas is the world's largest corporate buyer of LNG, purchasing around 30 million mt annually. The latest deal means that Marubeni will handle 6% of Kogas' overall imports, the Nikkei said.
Marubeni entered LNG transport operations three years ago. In 2011, it acquired the LNG shipping business of AP Moller-Maersk, the Danish shipping giant, the Nikkei said. It currently owns 14 ships, including those held jointly with others, with plans to boost the total to 20-30 by 2020, it added.
