Shipowners preparing to offer in on Qatar Petroleum’s charter ­tender for a huge haul of LNG ­carriers are weighing up eight ­vessel specifi­cations and at least four main ­charter-hire periods as they consider their technical offers.

Those reviewing the tender said the 37 pre-qualified owners are having to wade through more than 450 pages of documentation.

They said each of the four yards — where Qatar Petroleum has reserved more than 150 berths in total — has offered two vessel designs: one for ME-GI propulsion systems, the other for X-DF engines.

Qatar Petroleum has also given owners four basic options for submitting their bids. They are based on a firm charter-hire period of 10, 12, 15 or 20 years, with options to extend up to 25 years.

The documentation shows the Qatari energy giant has settled on LNG carriers of about 174,000-cbm capacity — a change from its last huge tender exercise in 2004, when it opted for the world’s largest LNG vessels, the 213,000-cbm Q-Flex and 260,000-cbm Q-Max.

It has also outlined an interest in efficiency measures such as air lubrication and reliquefaction.

Tellingly, Qatar Petroleum has yet to reveal the price of the ships.

The closest it came to this was when it signed its deed of agreement on berths with China’s Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding (Group) for up to 16 vessels — eight firm, with eight options — in April 2020. This priced the ships at about $180m each.

But market players said they would expect the final cost to be higher, as steel prices have been rising.

On 1 June 2020, Qatar Petroleum signed similar berth reservation agreements with South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries for up to 45 vessels at each yard.

Deliveries were pencilled in to start from late 2023, although these are now expected to begin in 2024 and roll through into 2026.

Shipowners, which received ­tender documents on 16 March, are due to submit technical offers in mid-April, with commercial bids to follow in July.

Qatar Petroleum, which has nominated compatriot LNG producer Qatargas to handle the tender, has said it will review offers and assign owners to yard slots.

One analyst said the apparent flexibility given to owners to put forward their own charter-hire periods may offer them the chance of achieving reasonable returns over marginal ones.

Others asked what involvement Qatari LNG shipowner Nakilat might play in the newbuildings and said this could be another determining factor in the deals.

Qatar has said its mammoth newbuilding plan may take up to 60% of the world’s LNG carrier construction capacity at yards.

The Middle East state requires the tonnage to lift the cargoes from its North Field Expansion project, which will raise its nameplate production from 77 million tonnes per annum to 126 mtpa by 2027.

Ships are also needed for its Golden Pass LNG export project in the US and fleet renewal efforts.