QatarEnergy places LNG orders with Korean shipyards
The order comprises four vessels from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) and two from Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI). The Motorship notes that the programme was expected to eventually extend to 60 vessels, with a value of US$10 billion.
The orders came in the form of QatarEnergy’s declaration of its ship construction options under its Reservation of Shipyard Capacity agreements signed in May 2020.
“These orders, and those that will follow in the near future, constitute a significant part of our program to expand Qatar’s LNG fleet to meet the requirements of our LNG expansion projects, our existing fleet replacement, as well as our LNG trading arm,” said His Excellency Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs and president and chief executive of QatarEnergy.
DSME and SHI have previously built 23 Q-Flex and 14 Q-Max LNG vessels for Qatar as part of an earlier LNG expansion project. This latest North Field expansion programme will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million tonnes to 126 million tonnes per annum by 2027.
