December 13, 2004
Signing of Ship Building Contracts for Two LNG Carriers

Osaka Gas International Transport Inc. (OGIT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Osaka Gas, has entered into an agreement with Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation for building two LNG carriers each with 153,000m3 capacity.

The two carriers, scheduled to come into service in 2008 and 2009, respectively, will be operated by NYK Line. The first tanker will be used mainly to transport LNG from Oman for Qalhat LNG Project delivering some 800,000 tons annually. The other ship will be used for shipment of LNG for other projects.

The two vessels feature specially designed 4 spherical LNG tanks, of which 3 are being designed by stretching them by about 2 meters vertically. The new design enables tank capacity to be increased by about 5.5% with almost the same ship dimension and fuel consumption of existing 145,000m3 ships, resulting in greater efficiency of transportation. The two ships are also compatible with major LNG terminals throughout the world. (See notes for further details.)

The two carriers will be an addition to the fleet of three vessels owned by OGIT (co-owned with other companies) as well as another ship currently under construction.

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