State-owned petroleum company Qatar Petroleum has placed an order for four liquified natural gas (LNG) carriers at Chinese shipyard Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Co., a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation Limited (CSSC).
As informed, these four carriers are the first batch of orders in Qatar Petroleum’s massive LNG shipbuilding program, which will cater for future LNG fleet requirements for the North Field expansion projects as well as for existing vessel replacement requirements.
This order is also the first ever placed by Qatar Petroleum or any of its affiliates with a Chinese shipyard for LNG ships, and the first with Hudong in connection with the agreement to reserve ship construction capacity that was executed in April 2020.
The deal involves up to sixteen 174,000 cubic meter LNG carriers. This contract is the first part of a huge order that could include more than 60 liquefied natural gas carriers in total.
“We are proud to contribute to the success story of the LNG ship construction industry in China. We are also confident in Hudong’s capabilities to execute this order, worth in excess of 2.8 billion Qatari Riyals, to the highest safety and technical standards,” Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi , the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, commented.
The North Field expansion projects will increase Qatar’s LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum to 110 million tons per annum in the first phase.
The second phase of the North Field LNG expansion project, called the North Field South Project, will further boost Qatar’s production capacity to 126 million tons per year.
In January this year, the company revealed its strategy to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations by 2030.
The strategy establishes a number of targets, aligned with the International Maritime Organisation ‘s (IMO) zero-emission targets, and sets in motion a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
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“Qatar Petroleum’s LNG carrier fleet program is the largest of its kind in the history of the LNG industry and will play a pivotal role in meeting the shipping requirements of Qatar Petroleum’s local and international LNG projects, as well as replacing some of Qatar’s existing LNG fleet,” according to the company.