Qatargas has bought a fleet of ten steam-turbine LNG carriers that it had on long-term charter from a consortium of four Japanese shipowners.

The vessels have been serving the LNG producing giant’s Qatargas 1 project.

The Japan Maritime Daily revealed that the sale of the 137,000-cbm vessels was agreed on expiration of their 25-year time-charter contracts with Qatargas, which dovetailed with the end of Qatargas’ sales contract with a Japanese power utility.