Maria Angelicoussis-led Maran Gas Maritime has firmed up two LNG carrier newbuilding options at Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in South Korea.

The yard announced that it had inked a KRW 417bn ($374m) deal to build two LNG ships for an Oceanian company, ducking the naming of the contracting party and pricing the vessels at $187m each.

It said the newbuildings will be equipped with devices to boost fuel efficiency and will be delivered by July 2024.

Newbuilding sources said the vessels are for Maran's account.

In December Greek shipowner Maran was linked to a single order for an LNG ­carrier then priced at KRW 206bn ($186m) at SHI.

The vessel is due for delivery in July 2023.

The newbuildings announced by the yard this week are understood to be options attached to this original order.

Sources said the vessels are speculative and not yet committed to any business.

Maran, along with Japanese shipping giants NYK Line, Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) and K Line, is also sitting on four LNG newbuilding slots for the TotalEnergies-led Mozambique LNG project.

The Greek company’s berths for this east Africa business are at SHI.

But TotalEnergies, formerly Total, has opted to delay the project for at least one year due to militant attacks close to its Afungi construction site and the 17 LNG newbuildings have yet to be firmed up.

SHI has achieved 59% of its revised $9.1bn order target to date this year, winning $5.4bn worth of contracts for 44 ships to date.

The yard upped its target from $7.8bn as the pace of ordering picked up in 2021.