Qatar Petroleum agreed to reserve LNG ship construction capacity with Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group Co. Ltd. (Hudong), a wholly owned subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corp. Ltd. (CSSC) for its future LNG carrier fleet requirements, including those of its ongoing North Field expansion projects. Pursuant to the agreement, a significant portion of Hudong's LNG ship construction capacity will be reserved for Qatar Petroleum through the year 2027.
Hudong will build 174,000-cu m carriers to a design customized by CSSC for Qatar. The value of the contract is estimated at $3 billion out of a total anticipated spend by Qatar for new carriers of $10 billion.
North Field expansion projects will increase Qatar's LNG production capacity to 126 million tonnes/year (tpy) from 77 milion tpy.
Qatar Petroleum in 2019 issued an invitation to tender for construction of the LNG carrier fleet for its North Field expansion projects. The invitation expected initial delivery of 60 LNG carriers, with the potential to exceed 100 new carriers over the next 10 years (OGJ Online, Apr. 22, 2019).