QatarEnergy has selected four international shipowners for operation of 19 conventional LNG vessels—all with a capacity of 174,000 cu m each—as part of the second ship-owner tender under its LNG fleet expansion program.
The agreements cater for the operation of six vessels by CMES LNG Carrier Investment Inc., six vessels by Shandong Marine Energy (Singapore) Pte Ltd., and three vessels by MISC Berhad; all of which are being constructed at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea.
The remaining four vessels will be operated by a joint venture of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (K-Line) and Hyundai Glovis Co. Ltd. and are being constructed at Hanwha Ocean (formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering) also in South Korea.
The signings mark the conclusion of the conventional sizes vessels portion of QatarEnergy’s LNG fleet expansion program, bringing the total number of ships for which the company has time charter party agreements (TCP) to 104 vessels, the company said (OGJ Online, Feb. 15, 2024)
Of the 104 vessels, 43 will be chartered by QatarEnergy Trading, the company said.
Since 2022, QatarEnergy has signed a series of TCPs for the long-term charter and operation of 104 conventional LNG vessels as part of its LNG fleet expansion program. The initiative will support QatarEnergy’s expanding LNG production capacity from the North Field LNG expansion and the 18-million tonne/year Golden Pass LNG plant under development with ExxonMobil Corp., as well as meeting its long-term fleet replacement requirements (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2019).
