Nakilat takes back management of LNG fleet from Shell

Qatar’s Nakilat is growing up as a shipowner. The giant gas operator has decided to let Shell go as a manager of its LNG fleet and take on the duties itself.

Shell has provided a range of shipping services to Nakilat’s LNG fleet since it was established in 2006. These included the shipmanagement of 14 Q-Max and 11 Q-Flex LNG carriers and the sharing of Shell’s Shipping & Maritime expertise.

The vessels will be transitioned in three phases starting this year and shall be managed by Nakilat’s in-house shipmanagement arm, which currently manages four large LPG carriers and four Q-Flex LNG carriers.

This will be the world’s largest transition of an LNG fleet operation. The 25 vessels have so far delivered over 320m cu m of Qatar’s LNG to over 20 countries and have travelled 17m nautical miles- the equivalent of over 780 trips around the equator’s circumference.