Shell Marine Products has signed an exclusive distribution/supply agreement with Qatar Fuel (WOQOD), to become the only supplier of marine lubricants to WOQOD in Qatar.

Under the arrangement, Shell will also provide logistics, technical and HSSE support to WOQOD to enable reliable and consistent delivery of their product range to vessels calling in Qatar’s developing ports.

The deal will also ensure that marine lubricants are available in the rapidly growing Qatari market that will include Qatar Gas Transport Company’s (Nakilat) fleet of 25 liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, currently under construction in Korea.

WOQOD will supply both the initial fill volumes required by shipyards prior to delivery of each Nakilat vessel and the top up volumes required for operations by the fleet on a global basis. 

It is anticipated that WOQOD will also provide marine lubricants under the agreement to the four LPG carriers owned and operated by Gulf LPG Transport, a joint venture between Nakilat and Q-Ship.

To serve Nakilat and other Qatari marine lubricants customers, WOQOD will develop and operate the necessary infrastructure at Qatari ports and be responsible for sales and marketing. 

Future WOQOD infrastructure is expected to include bulk tanks, barges, and pack product storage facilities at Ras Laffan Industrial City port.

'The demands from the enormous shipping operations now underway in Qatar, especially at Ras Laffan Industrial City Port, merit a unique partnership such as this,' stated Mohamed Khalifa Turki Al-Sobai, vice chairman and managing director of WOQOD.

'WOQOD’s aspiration is to develop a world-class marine lubricants and services business capable of effectively servicing Qatar’s ports.  To achieve this, we were convinced we had to join forces with a world leader in the industry,' he added.

“The awarding of the marine lubricants contract for our LNG carriers is significant because it is another essential component in the sophisticated integration of support services required to ensure that the Qatar LNG Fleet is ready to safely, reliably and efficiently transport over 30 per cent of the world’s LNG around the globe by 2010,” said Muhammad Ghannam, Nakilat’s managing director.

“Shell views Qatar as a key growth market and our success in concluding these contracts with WOQOD and Nakilat is evidence of the success of our customer value propositions based around strong partnership capabilities and differentiated lubricants technology,” added Mike Lumley, regional general manager for Shell Marine Products.-TradeArabia News Service