GTT, India's Cochin Shipyards to Sign Deal to Build LNG Vessels

France’s Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT) is expected to sign an agreement with Indian state owned Cochin Shipyard for building LNG shipping vessels, Business Standard newspaper reported. The deal is expected to be inked on Monday.

Acording to Business Standard, the Indian government has been pushing to build LNG transportation vessels for state-owned GAIL (India) for the past few years. GAIL has a plan to invest $7.57 billion for hiring a fleet of LNG ships to ferry gas from the US to India for 20 years, starting 2017. GAIL had in August last year floated a global tender to charter nine newly-built ships for transportation of up to 5.8 million tons per annum of LNG from the US.

The tender, however, required bidders to build one-third of the ships in India, a condition that found no takers.

GAIL has been unsuccessful in attracting Japanese or South Korean shipbuilders to build LNG vessels in India.