Gaztransport and Technigaz (GTT), the French designer of maritime liquefied natural gas storage and fuel tanks, said it received an order from its partner, China's Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding, for the tank design of the first four LNG carriers for the QatarEnergy expansion project on behalf of the Japanese shipowner, Mitsui Osk Lines.
The Hudong-Zhonghua shipyard in Shanghai is a subsidiary of state-owned China State Shipbuilding Corp.
MOL, which has an operating fleet of almost 100 LNG carriers, had ordered the ships in April 2022 as it also increases its interests in the Chinese LNG shipping market.
GTT will design the tanks of these four new LNG carriers with a total of LNG tank capacity of 174,000 cubic metres per ship and the vessels will be fitted with the latest membrane containment system developed by GTT.
The deliveries of the four vessels to serve the Qatar expansion project is scheduled for the third quarter of 2024 and the second quarter of 2025.
MOL announced in April 2022 it had signed a long-term charter contract for four newbuild LNG carriers with QatarEnergy.
Track record
“MOL's solid track record in building LNG carriers in China in addition to its performance in the LNG carrier business and safety in navigation and cargo handling earned high regard from QatarEnergy, leading to the successful conclusion of the contract.” MOL said at the time.
QatarEnergy has been developing the North Field Expansion Project to boost its LNG ouput.
The North Field expansion will increase Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 million tonnes per annum to 126 MTPA with the carrier fleet programme alongside, which could amount to 80 vessels, including the replacement of older ships in the current fleet.
The scope of the first phase of the expansion at the Ras Laffan production complex involves an additional four Trains, each with 8.0 MTPA of output.
Qatar has the southern portion of the North Field in Gulf waters that will provide the huge feed-gas resources and the other part of the field is under the jurisdiction of neighbouring Iran.
