First Q-Flex ship reaches US

Qatar has sent its first shipment of LNG to be carried on giant new tankers to the United States, Qatargas.

The new tankers have capacity of around 216,000 cubic metres for the gas chilled to its liquid form, about 60 percent larger than Qatargas' current fleet of vessels with capacity of around 135,000 cubic metres. The Qatargas vessel Q-Flex Al Gharrafa is on charter to RasGas carrying a cargo for Cheniere Energy and will discharge at the newly commissioned Sabine Pass LNG Terminal in Louisiana. The vessel is owned by a joint venture between Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) and Overseas Ship Holding Group (OSG) and is on long-term charter to Qatargas 2. Equipped with an on-board re-liquefaction system to handle the boil-off gas, Q-Flex vessels are able to deliver almost 100 percent of the cargo to customers. The cargo is the second to arrive at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal. The terminal is owned by Cheniere Energy and received its first cargo in April. The terminal cost around $1.5 billion to build and will be capable of reheating and pumping around 2.6 billion cubic feet of gas per day into the US gas system.
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