Qatar’s Nakilat, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipper, saw its net profit in the January-September period fall 19 percent.

Nakilat reported a nine-month net profit of 607 million riyals ($161.8m), compared with 749 million riyals in the same period last year.

The Doha-based LNG shipping giant said in a statement that lower scrap value of its vessels and the lower number of charter hire days were one of the main reasons for the profit drop.

Nakilat’s revenues slid 4 percent on year in the period under review to 2.77 billion riyals ($738.6m).

Earnings per share were at 1.09 riyals in the nine-month period compared to 1.35 riyals for the same period of the previous year.

Nakilat’s fleet comprises of 67 wholly- and jointly-owned LNG and four LPG vessels.

The company’s LNG vessels are chartered through long-term deals with Qatari LNG producers, Qatargas and RasGas.

LNG World News Staff