Sinotrans in talks to join Arctic LNG shipping joint venture

The company said in a stock market announcement that it is in negotiations with certain parties in relation to participation in a possible joint venture to commission the building of five Arctic LNG carriers to engage in the LNG Arctic shipping business, taking up a 25.5% share in the joint venture.

Sinotrans however cautioned that the "parties are still at the stage of negotiations and the company has not entered into any legally binding agreement in respect of such Proposed JV Arrangement".

There is speculation that the vessels will be for the Yamal LNG project slated to start production in 2017 while Bloomberg reported that the other partners in the project are China Merchants Energy Shipping (CMES), China LNG Shipping and Dynagas.

CMES has announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary CLNG will invest in the five Arctic LNG carriers and it will provide $37.8m of capital investment into CLNG to support the business venture.