Swan confirms $325m Daewoo FSRU order
Doubters and sceptics pay attention: Swan Energy managing director Nikhil Merchant confirms to this report the BSE-listed company placed a $325m order in October to buy a FSRU from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME).
Speaking exclusively to PETROWATCH, Merchant said the 183,000 cubic metre FSRU is under construction at Daewoo’s Okpo Bay shipyard at Geoje Island on the south-eastern tip of the Korean peninsula. A month before delivery takes place between September and December 2018 the FSRU will have a naming ceremony – and it’s likely to be quite a celebration considering this will be the first Indian-flagged FSRU.
“Daewoo is a global leader in the manufacture of LNG carriers,” says Merchant. “It has constructed over 95 LNG carriers.
” Merchant, who usually sits in the company’s Ballard Estate office in Mumbai, was in Ahmedabad on November 24 to begin talks with three EPC contractors including L&T and AFCONS at Swan’s plush new office on the ground floor of the 9th Avenue building in western Ahmedabad. “We want to work with the best,” he adds.
Swan is preparing to award EPC contracts for the proposed Rs5600cr ($844m) project at Jafrabad port near Pipavav in Gujarat – yet another sign it is serious about construction in early 2016. Contracts on offer include jetties, topsides, onshore receiving facilities and a 2200 metre long ‘rubble mount’ breakwater so ships can berth during rains when seas turn rough.