China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding has won orders for four 174,000-cbm LNG carriers worth more than $769m from Qatar Petroleum.
The newbuildings, to be delivered in 2024 and 2025, are the first to be ordered at a Chinese shipbuilder by the Qatari shipowner.
The company said it is paying more than QAR 2.8bn ($769m) for the four newbuildings.
Hudong-Zhonghua is the first shipyard to officially sign LNG newbuilding contracts with Qatar as part of its huge 150-vessel newbuilding plan.
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industries, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering are also in line to win contracts for Qatar.
Qatar Petroleum needs to expand its fleet to meet the country's increasing LNG production capacity, which is due to go from 77m tonnes to 126m tonnes per annum.
"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," Qatar Petroleum said.
At the time of the 2020 agreement, Qatar Petroleum is reported to have reserved 16 slots with Hudong-Zhonghua that comprise eight firm vessels and a similar number of options worth a total of $2.85bn.
"I am especially pleased with the signing of this order as it marks our first-ever new LNG carrier to be built in the People’s Republic of China," said Saad Sherida al-Kaabi — Qatar’s minister of state for energy affairs and the president and chief executive of Qatar Petroleum.
“We are also confident in Hudong’s capabilities to execute this order to the highest safety and technical standards and to deliver top quality LNG carriers that will facilitate continued safe and reliable delivery of LNG to the world.”
