China State Shipbuilding Corporation and Qatar Energy have agreed to build 18 of the world’s biggest LNG carriers together. This shows they are supporting Qatar’s plans to grow its LNG industry.
The deal is worth about $6 billion, making it the largest single order of LNG carriers ever.
These new ships will be part of the bigger QC-MAX LNG carrier fleet, which can hold up to 271,000 cubic meters of LNG in five tanks.
The Q-Max ships, which are specifically for Qatar, can carry between 263,000 and 266,000 cubic meters of LNG.
Qatar recently said that most of the ship orders they’ve made, totaling 104 vessels, are the traditional size, holding 174,000 cubic meters of LNG.
Qatar Energy says they will get eight of the new LNG carriers in 2028 and 2029, and the other ten in 2030 and 2031.
In 2023, Qatar delivered around 17 million tons of LNG to its main customers in China. They also supplied China with crude oil, LPG, naphtha, helium, and various chemicals.
Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, QatarEnergy’s CEO, says this deal, valued at nearly $6 billion to build the biggest LNG carriers ever, is the largest shipbuilding agreement in the industry.
This agreement shows how Qatar and China are working together more in the energy sector.
Qatar wants to become the top LNG exporter, aiming to increase its production by 85% by 2030 to 142 million tonnes per year.
Qatar Energy plans to expand its operations in the North Field, which holds 10% of the world’s LNG reserves.
