LNG

QatarEnergy has celebrated a South Korean steel-cutting of the first of its new generation of chartered liquefied natural gas carriers that will transport output from two LNG expansions and with most of the newbuilds booked for shipyards in South Korea.

QatarEnergy said it was joined by Samsung Heavy Industries and US investment bank JP Morgan Asset Management in a special ceremony on Geoje Island in Korea to mark the official launching of QatarEnergy’s LNG fleet expansion project. 

The Doha-based company said the shipyard event signified an extension of QatarEnergy's “international collaborations and commitment to global partnerships” and follows the October 2022 steel-cutting at Hudong-Zhonghua, the Chinese shipyard to where a far smaller part of the shipbuilding contract was awarded.

The Korean ceremony was held before executives of companies involved in the project including Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Chief Executive of Qatargas who attended on behalf of Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs and who is also President and CEO of QatarEnergy.

Samsung was represented by Jin-Taek Jung, the CEO of SHI, and Andy Dacy, the CEO of JP Morgan's Global Transport Group, an owner of LNG carriers to support its commodities business.

Slot reservations

The steel-cutting ceremony in South Korea followed QatarEnergy's 2020 decision to enter into Ship Slot Reservation Agreements with three Korean shipyards: SHI, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.

Subsequently, in 2022, QatarEnergy signed multiple time-charter parties with various shipowners, including the shipping unit of JP Morgan Asset Management, a fund investing in a wide array of energy transportation assets.

Qatar has two expansion projects, the North Field East (NFE) joint venture and the North Field South (NFS) venture. When both are completed Qatar's production will surge to 126 MTPA from the current 77 MTPA.

The carrier fleet expansion programme is being conducted alongside and about 80 LNG vessels are being built, including the replacement of older ships in the current Qatari fleet.

The surge in LNG newbuilds for Qatar and other proejcts will take the global fleet in several years to more than 800 vessels.

The main South Korean shipbuilders won all the first big round of Qatari orders so that the vessels are ready for the start-up of the first production expansion project, the North Field East venture.

China newbuilds

Qatar has also ordered at least half a dozen new LNG carriers from the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding Group of Shanghai for the Ras Laffan expansion’s cargo transportation.

While QatarEnergy's partners in the LNG production expansions are primarily US and European energy majors, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., the Chinese major known as Sinopec, also agreed in April 2023 to take a stake in the NFE expansion.

Sinopec had already signed a cargo supply deal with QatarEnergy in November 2022 to receive 4 MTPA of Qatari cargoes from 2026.

With a total investment of $28.75 billion, the NFE project will increase Qatar's annual LNG export volumes in the first instance from 77 MTPA to 110 MTPA.

Sinopec signed an equity participation agreement with QatarEnergy to take 1.25 percent of the shares in the NFE joint venture. 

South Korean shipyard Samsung Heavy Industries said it was awarded a contract worth 3.9 trillion South Korean won ($3 billion) to build 14 liquefied natural gas carriers, apparently with 12 of the ships being for Qatar’s expansion project.

SHI declined to say in a regulatory filing whether the bulk of the new orders were related to a potential mega-deal from QatarEnergy after South Korean shipbuilders were asked by the Qataris in 2020 to reserve a major portion of their LNG ship construction capacity.

The shipbuilder received a separate order for two vessels and worth around $430M from an unnamed client in Africa to deliver the two ships by the end of December 2024.

The latest orders brought SHI's total for 2022 to $6.3Bln for 33 ships, including 24 LNG carriers.

With these orders, SHI said it had achieved 72 percent of its annual order target estimated at $8.8Bln for 2022.

SHI’s 12 newbuild carriers, destined to deliver Qatari volumes and which would be Bahamian-flagged, would each have capacity of 174,000 cubic metres.

SHI said this latest order marked the single largest shipbuilding contract and LNG carriers order that a Korean shipyard had been awarded.

In March 2021 the shipyard had obtained a then record order worth $2.48Bln to build 20 containerships with capacities of 15,000 twenty-foot units.

DSME order

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering disclosed on June 8, 2022, that it had received a $850M order for four newbuilds from Qatar.

The LNG carrier orders are increasing to keep pace with LNG and demand liquefaction plant expansion by nations such as Qatar and the US.

DSME, the world's No. 4 shipbuilder by order backlog, said it would build the Qatar project vessels with 174,000 cubic metres of capacity at the Okpo shipyard on the south coast and deliver them by the first half of 2025.

The DSME order was the first result of a $19 billion contract that DSME, SHI and Hyundai Heavy Industries, signed with Qatar to construct scores of LNG vessels through 2027.

The contract is in line with Qatar's plan to boost its LNG production capacity to 126 million tonnes per annum by 2027 in two expansions from the current 77 MTPA.

Delfin LNG, the US floating liquefaction and export project proposed for offshore Louisiana, has filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a third extension of permits to complete the venture.

Jan 6 (LNGJ) - South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries has signed a deal valued at 199 billion South Korean won ($185 million), to build a liquefied natural gas carrier for the South Korean shipping company Pan Ocean Co. The Korean shipping line has delivered cargoes of LNG since 2008 for the nation’s largest importer, Korea Gas Corp. The new vessel is scheduled to be delivered in April 2023.

MISC Group, the Malaysian company with more than 30 liquefied natural gas carriers in its fleet and with engineering and offshore divisions, is hoping to build on the momentum for growth in the shipping sector after sensing increased demand and securing two LNG carrier charters from ExxonMobil.