A hotly anticipated tender for the second phase of QatarEnergy’s huge raft of LNG carrier newbuilding programme has landed with shipowners.
Details remain sketchy at present but insiders report that kick-off meetings on Phase 2, under which around 40 LNG vessels are expected to be ordered, are planned to get underway in London during the first two full weeks of June.
Shipowners, who received initial requests for expressions of interest in March, are said to have been given an indication that QatarEnergy will make a final choice of shipowners before the end of this year. It will then assign owners to its pre-reserved berths and ink long-term charter deals with them on the ships.
The Qatari liquefaction giant is said to be under increasing pressure to move forward on its slots as shipyards field enquiries for the berths from other LNG players including majors, private owners and projects.
TradeWinds understands QatarEnergy — which is tipped to sign a new two-million-tonne-per-annum LNG-supply deal with Bangladesh this week — has set a deadline of the end of June to conclude its negotiations with South Korean shipbuilders Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries.
Hanwha Ocean — formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering — is said to have been given until September to conclude its discussions.
Speculation is swirling over the likely pricing agreed with yards.
The 66 vessels concluded during Phase 1 of QatarEnergy’s LNG newbuilding programme were based on a renegotiated benchmark price of around $215m. But since then, levels for vessels contracted this year have climbed up to the $260m mark.
Some indicate the Qatari berths are now likely to be in the region of $230m-plus apiece. But the final details have still to emerge.
Qatar LNG shipping watchers are also intrigued to know if the company will opt to pursue a new breed of Q-Max ships under this second phase of newbuildings.
TradeWinds reported in March that the company had asked shipbuilders to quote on vessels of 263,000 cbm to 265,000 cbm.
LNG newbuilding sources said that of South Korea’s big three shipbuilders, where QatarEnergy has reserved berths, SHI would appear best placed to build these if required, as its dock space could best accommodate the ships. But the yard is also experiencing competition for that dock space from floating LNG production units.
SHI is understood to be holding 16 pre-reserved berths for the Qatari business and observers have suggested that up to half of these could be built as Q-Max vessels, if the Middle East chartering giant opts to up the size on some of the ships.
Of the remaining vessels, Hanwha Ocean is sitting on 12 slots and HHI 10.
