Fox shortlists three FSRU hopefuls
Novice LNG promoter Fox Petroleum has shortlisted South Korean companies Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo to build what it claims will be Asia's largest FSRU to be moored at Karwar off the Karnataka coast.
Speaking from the company's UAE headquarters a Fox spokesman tells us the company will select a winner by August 15 to build the 7.2m t/y capacity vessel that it claims will be operational by 2019. "Fox does not need bank financing for this project," he said of the estimated $1.06bn proposal.
"We are strong enough to finance it ourselves." On April 17 this year Fox announced a MoU with the Karnataka state government to deploy a FSRU around 8-km off Karwar built at a cost of $563m with associated onland storage facilities built for $495. By all accounts Samsung appears to leading the race, according to a mid-June note from Seoul-based Hi Investment & Securities.
Fox's website offers little clue about the company's LNG expertise focusing instead on penetrating philosophical insights delivered in precarious English by its Delhi-based company chairman Ajay Kumar.